Max Verstappen at risk of penalty as Red Bull make car change at Mexico GP

Max Verstappen complained throughout Friday practice ahead of Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix about a noise he could hear coming from his engine and Red Bull have now taken action.

One of Verstappen’s engines out of the season allocation may have been lost after complaining about “a noise” from it.

The Dutchman complained about his power unit in the first practice session of the Mexican Grand Prix weekend. Red Bull tried it for FP2 later in the day but he was again complaining of a noise which was troubling him.

Prior to the final preparations on the final practice session on Saturday the team revealed that the affected engine has since been changed. The unit installed is one that was already in his pool and so there will be no penalty given this weekend.

But the loss of that engine from his pool, if it cannot be salvaged, may mean he has to take one in one of the final few races of this season. Verstappen had complained that he was getting “no power” from that engine and that he could hear “a weird noise”.

To fit Verstappen’s changed power unit, Red Bull used one of the two ‘jokers’ F1 teams have per season which allows them to break curfew. That meant some staff could stay at the circuit overnight to carry out the work.

The Dutchman will expect the new engine specification to get him a better feel in a circuit which the Red Bull team has performed well in the recent past. And more recently, five of the six most recent F1 races at the altitude of Mexican Hermanos Rodriguez since 2017.

He has not won a Grand Prix race since June but Verstappen remarkably took the championship lead by 57 points from Lando Norris last weekend in Austin. Success on Sunday in Mexico City would leave the Brit within four rounds to catch up an even bigger margin.

Norris lost out because of a contentious penalty he received for overtaking his championship rival while wide of the track. While the Brit bemoaned the decision and claimed that Verstappen was aggressive when they came together, the McLaren racer stated that he simply is not in the same class as the Dutchman when it comes to fighting on track.

He said: That style of defence and attack, Max is the best in the world but I am going up against the best in the world. So, I have to be at his level and I am not there yet, all because of that little passive. Quite regretfully, it must be said that it is probably the truth. It is an experience for, me and [to] get better.

“I am learning from Max. There’s nobody who can take it to the extreme and know what he can do at his best than him. He is this way maybe 99 percent of the time and they are as on the limit as correct as they can be. He is at the kind of standard that every driver should be at.”