HUNGARORING -- Ferrari believes it can make it to the end of the season without incurring a grid penalty for using a fifth turbocharger on the cars of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
After ten races, both Ferrari drivers have used all four of their allocated turbochargers for the year and using a fifth at any point before the end of the season would result in a ten-place grid penalty. Vettel's car was fitted with its fourth turbocharger as early as the Spanish Grand Prix in May while Raikkonen's fourth debuted at Silverstone earlier this month.
Teams are allowed to rotate between their allocation of power unit components during the season, meaning Ferrari can still go back to a previously used turbocharger without incurring a penalty. After reliability upgrades were introduced earlier this year, Ferrari technical director Mattia Binotto believes the combined lifecycle of the turbochargers still available to each driver should be enough to avoid a penalty for the rest of the year.
"Certainly it is somehow a concern in the fact that we had failure on the turbo at the start of the season and we have to replace them at the very start and you introduce very early in the season turbo number three and turbo number four," Binotto said. "Having said that, we introduce as well in the following turbos some modifications for reliability.
"They are running well at the moment, so we've got all the pool at the moment that have been introduced but we've got all the mileage available on each turbo, so we are rotating them and, obviously it's our objective to conclude the season with the current pool of turbos."
Two of the toughest tests for turbochargers will come towards the end of the season at the Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix. The high altitudes at both circuits (Mexico City sits at 2,250 metres while Interlagos is 760 metres) means turbochargers have to spin at a faster rpm to create the same boost pressure in thinner air.
By comparison, Mercedes' drivers are on their third ICE (Internal Combustion Engine), turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K and their second energy store (ES) and control electronics (CE).