More problems with Ferrari engine: three (!) broken MGU-Ks in Monaco

08:23, 31 May 2022
11 Comments

Kevin Magnussen seemed to have a serious chance at points in the Monaco Grand Prix, but relatively early in the race the Haas F1 driver had to park his car in the pit box. It turned out to be an issue with the MGU-K. On Friday during practice, Mick Schumacher and Valtteri Bottas also had problems with that particular engine part.

It will certainly be something Ferrari will look at this week in Maranello. When the same engine component breaks down three times in one weekend, it seems logical to think that it is a structural problem. Research in the factory of the Italian engine supplier will however have to shed more light on the actual cause of the problem.

For Magnussen, the pigeons were in any case sour, as he returned home scoreless. "We had to retire the car - there was nothing we could do about that sadly," he stated afterwards in the press release from Haas F1. "I really thought our pace in the race was good considering we were on a full wet on a dry line, I had been able to keep Gasly behind until our issue and I was closing on Bottas. It would have been really exciting around the pit stops to see what could have happened. It's unfortunate with no points today even though I think we had the car to do it, we knew we could fight."

Grid penalty Bottas approaching

It is unclear whether the three MGU-Ks have sustained permanent damage or whether a repair is also within the realm of possibility. Drivers are allowed to use three different MGU-Ks in a season. After that, grid penalties follow. For Bottas, the problems in Monaco meant that he was already driving with his third MGU-K.

11 Comments
User Avatar
ComplexitySimplified 31 May 2022 at 13:38+ 1508

I wonder if that’ll bring any performance benefit given the drop off performance of Honda engine is minimal.

F11971 01 June 2022 at 24:02+ 1969

Honda, around 9 HP after 7 races.

User Avatar
Divergent2 31 May 2022 at 08:56+ 21328

Factory team's MGU-K's are running fine, only customer teams are facing problems. Must be a packaging problem for others then.

User Avatar
VeganWarrior 31 May 2022 at 09:35+ 52489

Thats a good point, do the customer teams employ the same cooling and placement of the unit ?

User Avatar
Divergent2 31 May 2022 at 10:24+ 21328

It's different for every constructor because chassis and bodywork of each one of them is different.

JohanArn 31 May 2022 at 10:06+ 2

The first MGU-K to give up the ghost was Leclerc's he dropped out in Spain

User Avatar
Divergent2 31 May 2022 at 10:20+ 21328

It wasn't MGU-K. Turbo and MGU-H failed on Charles's car in Spain. Mattia said it wasn't due to Design or installation fault, means failure must have occurred due to inadequate cooling in high temperature at Barcelona.

Yessir 31 May 2022 at 10:11+ 2223

I thought LEC's was busted?

User Avatar
Divergent2 31 May 2022 at 10:25+ 21328

No, turbo and mgu-h failed on his car. Mgu-k was fine.

Yessir 31 May 2022 at 12:01+ 2223

Ayt. Thanks.

User Avatar
F1KoolFan 31 May 2022 at 08:35+ 6151

I SMELL TROUBLE AHEAD FOR TEAMS WITH THE FERRARI PU. That would be a HUGE downer on the competition for the championship in this already fascinating season......