The new F1 season may only be five races young but there are already plenty of drivers on the cusp of an engine penalty.
The power unit rules for 2022 are complex, with drivers allowed to use some elements more than others over the course of the campaign. For example, while they can use only two Energy Stores (ES) and Control Electronics (CE), they may use up to eight Exhaust Systems (EX).
The most crucial elements have a limit of three, as is the case with the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), Turbocharger (TC), MHU-H and MGU-K.
There are already two drivers who have filled up their allocation on the four components above and will encounter a penalty should they be forced to make a further change (unless to a part they have previously used). Those drivers are Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda.
Valtteri Bottas is not far behind and will face a penalty should he swap either his Turbocharger or his MGU-H for a new one. Likewise, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher are all perilously close to incurring penalties themselves.
The full driver-by-driver breakdown for the season so far can be seen below:
Number of power unit elements used per driver
| Driver | ICE (3) | TC (3) | MGU-H (3) | MGU-K (3) | ES (2) | CE (2) | EX (8) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russell | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hamilton | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Verstappen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Perez | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Leclerc | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Sainz | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Ricciardo | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Norris | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Alonso | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Ocon | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Gasly | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Tsunoda | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Stroll | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Vettel | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Albon | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Latifi | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Bottas | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Zhou | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Magnussen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Schumacher | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
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