FIA announce Max Verstappen engine change at Bahrain Grand Prix

The FIA have confirmed that Max Verstappen’s Red Bull has received engine changes, alongside Yuki Tsunoda's RB21 and the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.

A technical delegate’s report from the Bahrain GP confirmed that Verstappen, Tsunoda, Hadjar and Lawson’s cars will compete with a new energy store, and have used one of their two new energy store (ES) changes allowed for the season.

The four drivers will also start the Bahrain GP with new control electronics (CE), which marks their first of two allotted changes. If Verstappen or any of the other three drivers exceed their usage, they could incur a penalty.

All of Verstappen’s engine changes remain legal and will not impact any results he achieves during the Bahrain GP weekend.

Why do F1 drivers need to change engine components?

An F1 power unit is made up of several different elements - including the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), Turbochargers, Motor Generator Unit–Kinetic (MGU-K), Motor Generator Unit–Heat (MGU-H), Control Electronics (CE), Energy Store (ES) and the Exhaust.

Each component is sealed by the FIA to ensure they cannot be rebuilt or replaced, but over time these parts are subject to wear and tear, particularly in qualifying where drivers switch their engine modes up to the max and push for pole position.

The FIA allows F1 teams to make a certain number of changes without incurring a penalty, with the amount allowed depending on the component.

As described above, teams have two allotted changes to their ES and CE, can have no more than three ICE changes, three turbochargers, three exhaust sets and two MGU-K changes.

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