Horner Confirms: ‘Verstappen’s Penalty is Unavoidable’

Sergio Perez caught a lucky break.

He had to start the British Grand Prix from the back anyway, so taking an engine penalty didn’t hurt much. This way, the Red Bull Racing driver wasn’t too affected by the extra punishment for using more power units than allowed in an F1 season.

Perez has five engines now, while Max Verstappen has used four new ones in his RB20. One of Max’s engines broke down on the first day during the Canadian Grand Prix. Back then, Horner already hinted that Max would need a fifth engine and face a 10-spot grid penalty sometime this season.

When will Verstappen get his grid penalty?

After checking things out at Honda in Japan, they found that the broken engine can’t be fixed. So now Horner is sure: “I’m sure at some point we’ll end up taking an extra engine for Max. It’s just a question of when you choose strategically to do that. So we’ll work with Honda on that but inevitably we will take a penalty at some point in the year,” he said.

Last year, Verstappen also went over his limit of four engines. He took his fifth one during the Belgian Grand Prix and got a grid penalty but still won because he was so dominant that season.

Fans might wonder if this year’s strategy will pay off as well.

What do you think about this?