Red Bull still undecided about taking another penalty for Verstappen
Sep.22 - Red Bull is yet to decide if Max Verstappen will need to take a grid penalty this weekend at Sochi.
The world championship will ultimately need to be penalised by fitting an inevitable fourth Honda power unit this year, with Sochi mentioned as a potentially appropriate venue for that.
Verstappen is already moving three places back on the Russian GP grid due to his Monza clash with title rival Lewis Hamilton.
"We are limited on the engine side," team official Dr Helmut Marko told RTL.
"We have to replace the engine somewhere in the coming races, because of the damage to the Silverstone engine," he explained.
"We will wait for qualifying, we'll wait for the weather, and then we'll make a decision," said Marko.
The 78-year-old admits that Sochi might be a good venue for the inevitable engine penalty.
"Could be," Marko said. "It depends on the overall picture of the possibility for overtaking and scoring points, especially if we start from the very back."
As for the three-place penalty for the Hamilton clash, Marko said Red Bull "accepts" the stewards' decision.
"But in our opinion it was a racing accident," he insisted.
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The weather forecast will probably dictate whether Red Bull takes the PU allocation penalties for this race or later.
Yes, the 2019 race shows Sochi Autodrom isn’t a terrible track for starting further behind, but so do 2018 + 2014 (ROS), 2015 (MAS), & 2016 (MAG, GRO). Most relevantly, ’18 & ’19 for RBR.
So by taking a new engine Max V avoids a racing penalty! He ends up at the back of the grid like every other racing team will face at some stage. If for example Lewis H Mercedes team decided to replace a motor before this race then he would pay the same penalty as Max. Therefore Max is not taking a racing penalty from Monza. Also conveniently take a rear end start on a circuit that is favourable to allow coming quickly through the field.
If this is the FIA rules then they are rubbish. From a sporting point of view if a racing penalty (being the driver's fault) is given at a race it should not be soaked up with an engine change but moved forward to a race that does not include an engine change. Effectively Max did not get a penalty for bad driving. It means that any team that is coming up for an engine change can play dirty in the race prior and suffer no extra penalties by changing a motor. I cannot believe the stupidity of the way this works.
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