The Formula 1 teams had to accept significantly fewer engine penalties in 2023 than in the previous season. A driver was only affected by a penalty eleven times last season – in 2022 it was an impressive 36 times.
20 times in 2022, drivers received penalties that put them at the back of the grid or in the pit lane, but that was only the case seven times this year – with six of those cases deciding not to swap the parts until after qualifying, which just results in a start from the pit lane.
So only Yuki Tsunoda had to start from the back in Mexico as planned, after there had been 16 cases in the previous year in which so many parts were changed that a start from the back of the field was automatically announced.
There are two main reasons for the supposedly increased reliability: on the one hand, the teams were able to continue working on the durability of their engines even when the engines were frozen, and on the other hand, more engine parts were available to all drivers this season.
The engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K were limited to four elements in 2023, and in 2022 there were three each. They started the season with three planned elements, but at the end of April the Formula 1 Commission suddenly decided to increase the components.
Because Imola eliminated an additional race, the teams had more parts available while the number of races remained the same.
Early penalties for Perez and Leclerc
At first it looked as if engine penalties could become a much bigger issue: Charles Leclerc had to accept a penalty of ten places in the second race of the season in Saudi Arabia because Ferrari had already installed the third control electronics (out of two allowed) in his car .
One race later, Sergio Perez had to start from the pit lane because Red Bull used the third control electronics and the third energy storage unit (also two allowed).
Because the Mexican would have started last in the race in Melbourne after qualifying anyway and Red Bull swapped the parts after qualifying, there was no transfer back, but a start from the pits.
Perez and Leclerc are also the only two drivers who had to accept more than one engine penalty: Leclerc was given 15 places in Spain, Perez was given another pit lane start in Qatar.
With Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) there were seven other drivers once affected by a penalty.
That also means: Mercedes, Alpine, McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams, five teams made it through the entire season without a single penalty.
Control electronics caused most of the penalties
The biggest “problem area” among the engine parts last season was the control electronics, which was more than exhausted by seven drivers and was the only element that even exceeded a single violation by two drivers (Perez and Leclerc). However, it only allows two elements.
This also applies to the energy storage system, which led to six penalty transfers. The engine, which still had the most violations in 2022, as well as the turbocharger and MGU-H were exceeded four times, and the MGU-K had three additional units.
Everything remained within limits with the exhaust, of which eight elements were allowed to be used. Only Nico Hülkenberg and the two Alpine pilots even took advantage of this leeway.
Roll backwards for 2024
The transmission was also subject to a quota again in 2023, which was divided into inner and outer transmission elements. Mostly everything was changed as one package, so that the two Haas drivers and Tsunoda both went over the limit once.
World champion Max Verstappen was the only one in Belgium who only overplayed the inner elements and was punished with five starting places for this.
For 2024, the increase in engine elements introduced in 2023 will be reset again, so that the engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K will only be available three times each, although the calendar will include two more races.
However, the number of 24 races means that five instead of four of each transmission component can now be used per season.