Fittipaldi set to be hit with grid penalty for F1 debut at Sakhir GP

Pietro Fittipaldi is set to be hit with a grid penalty on his Formula 1 debut at the Sakhir Grand Prix after Haas made changes to his power unit.

Haas has taken a new control electronics (CE) and energy story (ES) on Fittipaldi’s car for the weekend, meaning it has exceeded its total of those power unit elements for the season.

The 24-year-old Brazilian is standing in to deputise for Haas regular Romain Grosjean, who is sitting out of the Sakhir Grand Prix as he continues to recover from the injuries he sustained in his horror crash on the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

As Fittipaldi is driving Grosjean’s VF-20, he has taken over the Frenchman’s allocation of components as well. He has moved onto the third CE and ES elements of 2020, exceeding the permitted allocation of engine parts.

It means he faces the likely prospect of a back-of-the-grid start on his maiden grand prix appearance in Bahrain.

Fittipaldi got within 0.372s of Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen in P18 during second practice on Friday.

“It was fantastic,” Fittipaldi said. “It’s exciting. It’s one year since I’ve driven an F1 car, eighth months since I’ve driven anything and I come out here and I took it step by step, but it’s crazy.

“You’re on the big stage now, this is the big league, so you go out in FP1 and it’s different because there’s a bunch of cameras, everyone taking pictures, so you’ve got to just stay focused, keep calm.

“With all the procedural stuff, that was my main kind of like, ‘let’s really focus on this so I don’t make any mistakes’, and I felt really good with that, with the starts, the pit stops.

“The only setback was in FP1, we had a lock-up that damaged my tyres so I couldn’t do any more running. But I kept my cool, went into FP2, did all my running.

“We closed the gap, which was really good. Tomorrow I’ll make another step and slowly raise the volume and push with everything when it counts in qualifying and the race.”