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Valtteri Bottas will start the Austrian Grand Prix from the back of the grid after his Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team opted to change a host of power unit components.
Bottas will have a new internal combustion engine, turbo charger, MGU-H, MGU-K, control electronics and exhaust system – with only his previous energy store being carried over.
As the engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K being introduced take Bottas over the permitted allocation of each for the 2022 season, he is consigned to a back of the grid start.
These apply to Sunday’s race, and not the sprint that will take place on Saturday.
Alfa Romeo has suffered a number of reliability issues during grand prix weekends so far this season, and Bottas said on Thursday ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix that those were “really troubling us”.
“The issues, yeah, they are not nice,” said Bottas, who is eighth in the drivers’ championship.
“It’s not always like one issue, it’s a few things here and there and different things keep happening. So that means we’ve not been able to score points.”
Lando Norris, who stopped his McLaren while on track during FP1 at the Red Bull Ring, has taken a new internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K, but all of these are within his allocation for the season.
Bottas’s Alfa Romeo team-mate Zhou Guanyu will also take a new control electronics, Ferrari’s F1 title hopeful Charles Leclerc has a new energy store, and Haas driver Mick Schumacher has a new exhaust. All of these changes are within the permitted allocation for 2022.
