As Formula 1 gears up for the first sprint weekend of the season, Alpine, Ferrari and McLaren have swapped their power unit components, taking advantage of a change in rules.
Teams have been granted the right to use four power units, up from the initial three, following the change in the race format at the first sprint weekend of the season.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has swapped his Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic, his second of the season.
McLaren’s Lando Norris has added a new Energy Store and Control Electronics for the sprint race, both are his second parts of the season.
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As these fall within the allotted numbers for the season, neither Sainz or Norris will suffer a grid penalty.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly suffered a crash during Friday’s session, he has had to add a new gearbox for Saturday’s event, his third of the season.
Gasly also suffered an incident in the Sprint shootout on Saturday morning, which could see him have another disastrous weekend, following his late crash in Australia.
Sainz starts Saturday’s sprint race in P5 and Sunday’s Grand Prix in P4, giving Ferrari a chance to fight back in the Constructors’ race
Norris lines up in P7 for the Grand Prix and P10 for the Sprint, after he couldn’t compete in the third round of the Saturday shootout due to his lack of fresh soft tyres.
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Gasly finds himself in the bottom five in both the Sprint and Grand Prix, starting both in P19, giving the Alpine driver a challenge if he wants to make it into the points.
While three teams have swapped parts to give them the best shot at points this weekend, the biggest story of the event so far is Ferrari’s comeback at the front of the grid, with Leclerc taking pole in the sprint race and Grand Prix.
Leclerc has had a difficult season so far, so is determined to show he can fight for victories again after two DNFs in three races.