Vandoorne, Ericsson and Wehrlein braced for grid penalties

Stoffel Vandoorne, Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein are all set to take grid penalties into Sunday's race at Spa-Francorchamps following unscheduled gearbox changes.
For Vandoorne, the five-place grid penalty is merely one of several he is set to take for what will be his maiden Formula One Grand Prix on home soil. The Belgian is also facing grid drops for taking his fifth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and MGU-K, eighth turbocharger (TC) and MGU-H, and his sixth Energy Store (ES) and Control Electronics (CE) - all of which mean he will almost certainly line up from the very back of the field.
Vandoorne has qualified inside the top 10 in the last two races - and also scored his first points of the season last time out in Hungary.
Sauber meanwhile have scored twice in 2017, both through Wehrlein - although neither he nor team mate Ericsson have qualified higher than 13th so far this year.
Vandoorne ended up 14th fastest on Friday afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps, 2.5s off Lewis Hamilton's pacesetting Mercedes. Ericsson was 19th, a further 2s down the road, with Wehrlein 20th.
Next Up
Related Articles
UnlockedInside the F1 driver’s bubble: The communications officer
5 key things we heard from Cadillac after Team Principal change
UnlockedInside the F1 driver’s bubble: The race engineer
UnlockedCan anyone stop Antonelli winning Italy’s first title since 1953?
9 times superhero movies made it onto the F1 grid
What time is the 2026 Dutch GP and how can I watch it?