Sebastian Vettel’s hopes of delaying Lewis Hamilton’s title charge at the United States Grand Prix suffered a potentially fatal blow Thursday when his Ferrari team were handed a 10-place grid penalty for introducing new engines this weekend.
Both four-time champion Vettel and teammate Kimi Raikkonen will be hit with the penalties at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday.
Ferrari will have new engines for the final four races of the season as the Italian giants strive to match rivals Mercedes for power and speed.
The team decision was affected by consideration for Vettel’s world championship position.
He is in second place, 66 points adrift of Hamilton with a maximum of 100 available in the final four races.
Vettel needs to finish in the top two, if Hamilton wins Sunday’s race, to stop him taking the title.
“If you look at just this race isolated, it’s not great news,” admitted Vettel.
“But you have to look at the whole project, the whole season, and it was always the plan to have a fresh engine here for the rest of the year.”
Both Vettel and Raikkonen have used their permitted allocation of four engines for the season and will be penalised for taking a fifth each.
“We knew this would happen and it has been always our plan to have a new engine, that takes us to the hit of a 10-places penalty,” said Vettel.
“It’s not a big secret, no surprise for us. Our engine guys have done a massive job, so this should not be understood as a downside. If anything this is very positive.”