Five engine rule just a fax vote away - Christian Horner

Red Bull is confident a change to the regulations to allow drivers to use five of each engine component over the course of the season is just a fax vote away.

This year drivers face a grid penalty if they use more than four of any of the following power unit components during the course of the season: Internal combustion engine (ICE), Turbocharger (TC), MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit - Kinetic), MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit - Heat), Control Electronics (CE) and Energy Store (ES). However, concerns that teams would not run in Friday practice in order to save components led to a proposal to up the allocation to five components per driver (as it was last year).

Daniel Ricciardo used his third Renault ICE of the year at the Bahrain Grand Prix, but Red Bull boss Christian Horner is confident the regulations will ease the amount of penalties he is likely to face later in the year.

"We [the teams] unanimously agreed on it in Malaysia, all the teams including Bernie", Horner said of the tweak to the regulations. "It only has to formally go through, theoretically, the Strategy Group and permission to be signed off, and that can be done by fax vote."

Asked if it would be done in time for the next race in Spain, Horner joked: "There's not a Strategy [Group] meeting before Barcelona, but we might need a strategy meeting in Barcelona if we lose another engine!"

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