Romain Grosjean has been hit with a rather large grid penalty for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after his team opted to change his engine and two other components for the race.
A new Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), a new Turbocharger (TC) and a Motor Generator Unit-Heat (MGU-H) all adds up to a 20-place grid drop because all three are outside of his season allocation of five.
With Grosjean unlikely to qualify on pole, any unserved drops will be carried over to the next event. However as Abu Dhabi is the last of the season, the FIA has confirmed he must serve time penalties instead.
One to five unserved grid positions will result in a five-second time penalty, six to 10 a 10-second time penalty and 11-20 will result in a drive-through penalty. The latter is most likely given the Frenchman would need to break into Q3 to avoid a drive-through.
Therefore it would make sense for Grosjean to simply sit out qualifying and save his tyres and car for the race.
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