Sebastian Vettel will take a five-place grid penalty this weekend at the Red Bull Ring after his Scuderia Ferrari team changed the gearbox on his SF16-H.
The German driver, who currently sits third in the championship standings after the first eight rounds of the twenty-one race season, ended the European Grand Prix two weeks ago without any issues, but on closer inspection after the race, the team found something that could have resulted in a gearbox failure.
As a precaution Ferrari have decided to change Vettel’s gearbox, and with the unit having failed to run in six consecutive Grand Prix as per the regulations, the German was forced to take the penalty.
Ferrari have also used an additional engine token ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, with a change having been made to the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) of both Vettel’s and Kimi Raikkonen’s cars.
The focus of the engine token usage appears to be for the camshaft within the ICE, with the update likely to help accommodate the new specification of fuel Shell are introducing to the team.
The new ICE for Vettel will be his fourth of the season, while for Raikkonen it will be his third, while both drivers will take their third MGU-K’s this weekend.
