- Belgian GP- FP2
Engine penalties 'inevitable' for Vettel
Sebastian Vettel admits it is a question of how many penalties he will suffer for using additional engine components in 2014 rather than if he will.
This year the power unit is split into six component parts, all of which are allowed to be changed five times throughout the season - with anything more than that resulting in a penalty. The first time a sixth component is used a ten-place grid penalty is issued, followed by five-grid penalties for the remaining six components, before starting at ten again when a seventh part is replaced and so on.
Vettel missed most of the running on Friday after hitting trouble and needed to make a fifth power unit change, meaning he is prepared for at least one penalty before the season's end.
"We'll have to pull an extra engine anyway, whether we can live on six or get another one - seven - it depends on this engine today," Vettel said. "It's inevitable for us anyway for us that we can't go through the second part of the season without a penalty.
"This was a new engine, so hopefully it is not damaged. That's why we didn't run - to check it properly. If it is obviously we need to get another one out, maybe not for this weekend but for some weekends in the future. We'll just have to wait and see. We didn't have any choice. It was already clear before today how many we need, the question is how many we will need."
After recording so little mileage on Friday Vettel thinks Spa-Francorchamps might be the worst place to be playing catch up.
"It didn't help to collect any experience today, obviously I didn't drive much aside from a few laps this morning. Otherwise you saw it is not the best circuit for us, we lacked speed down the straights and they are quite long straights here so let's see what we can do tomorrow.
"Obviously there are a lot of boxes to be ticked in general [at Spa]. It's important here to get your eye in, every year is different here - it's a long lap, there's lots of high-speed corners and therefore its important to have a rhythm compared to a slower track."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
