Verstappen has a penalty to drop places to the Russian VC, is it the perfect time for a new engine?

Dutch driver Max Verstappen has been punished for an incident at Monza in Italy by dropping three places at the start of the Russian Grand Prix. This suggests a gamble for Red Bull for the next race and a completely new power unit. It would automatically mean starting from last position for the championship leader.

In Italy, we saw a similar situation with Valtteri Bottas, who won both qualifying and the qualifying sprint, but started the race second to last.

The reason for this was the replacement of several components in the guts of his Mercedes, including the power unit. The Finn had already used the engine for the 4th time, which was the cause of one of the many penalties.

But in the race, Bottas, perhaps with a better engine set-up than in qualifying, made it to the podium, finishing third behind the two McLarens. Oh, and Max Verstappen could do something similar. The circuit in Russia offers two great overtaking chances.

The first is the long straight behind the start line, which allows for the longest sprint to Turn 1 on the F1 calendar, and then a much shorter straight using DRS between Turns 10 and 13, which also hides very slight changes of direction, labelled Turns 11 and 12.

It is the ability to tweak the power unit a little for the race that could be the key to sneaking into solid points for Verstappen. The Dutchman’s lead is currently just five points, with eight more grand prix to go before the end of the season.

The question will be whether Red Bull will opt for this still relatively risky move in Russia, or wait until the next race. But certainly a start from the back could help the appeal of the Russian race around the venues that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Source.