Williams’ Nicholas Latifi will join Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for a pitlane start in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, following engine and transmission changes to the two drivers’ respective cars.
Perez’s botched qualifying session which the Mexican concluded a lowly P16 encouraged Red Bull to consider the tactical option of introducing a new power unit into the driver’s pool of hardware.
While an engine change would have simply sent Perez to the back of the grid, Honda has taken the opportunity to also introduce a new specification energy store, which automatically triggers a pitlane start.
But the setback has nevertheless allowed Red Bull to undertake changes to Perez’s set-up in a bid to help the Mexican’s performance in Sunday’s race.
Latifi made the Q2 cut on Saturday and qualified P14, but the Canadian’s qualifying was cut short by a heavy crash that significantly damaged his Williams’ gearbox.
The subsequent change implied a five-place grid drop but the Grove-based outfit has elected to mount a different specification front wing on Latifi’s car for Sunday’s race, a change which also equates to a pitlane start for the Williams charger.
The pitlane starts will benefit AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who moves up to P14 on the Dutch Grand Prix grid, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, and Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who all gain two positions in the race’s starting order.
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