Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso Honda will be taking grid penalties for all their drivers for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom.
The plan behind this is head into the next race at Suzuka with low-mileage engines with it being Honda’s home Grand Prix.
Daniil Kvyat was the first driver to use Honda’s Spec 4 engine at the Belgian Grand Prix before Max Verstappen, Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly were fitted with their new Spec 4 engines at the following race in Monza.
Verstappen, Albon and Gasly will only be introduced with a fresh internal combustion engine each, hence a five-place grid penalty for the trio. Kvyat though, is set to replace all his elements within the power unit, meaning that he will start the race from the back of the grid on home soil.
Honda have upped their game this season with their aggressive development programme compared to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, notching up two wins in Austria and Germany in the process, but their high usage of their engine has resulted in Verstappen and Albon having to take their fifth ICEs. Kvyat and Gasly will be on their sixth and seventh engines.
