United States Grand Prix – “Striving for maximum performance”

Seb explains the reasons behind engine change
“For this weekend, we are going to use our fifth internal combustion engine of the season. And this means we are going to pay a ten-slot penalty on the grid. But then this has always been the plan and has never been a big secret to us. Our policy is to always try to have the strongest engine at every event along the season. The guys in the engine department have done a great job this year and even the decision we’re taking for the weekend here in Austin should be looked at on the positive side, because we keep pushing hard for performance and so far this has worked very well. Paying the penalty may not be fantastic news if you look at this weekend in isolation of course, but if you look at the whole picture, the advantage of a fresh power unit becomes clear. In general, if I look back at the season, I think it has been a phenomenal one. The challenge we faced was huge, with so many new people in many different roles, and myself being new to the team. The big effort was putting everything together and so far the year has been a great one”.