Vettel set to pay the penalty

Renault’s poor start to the season looks set to catch up with Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel in America.

They always expected that new engine regulations for this season would come back to haunt them.

They had half expected it to come into affect in Russia, but the team have merely put off the inevitable.

As part of the switch from v8 aspirated engines, to v6 turbo hybrid power trains, the FIA set limits on the amount of power train components each driver was allowed to use throughout the season.

The power-train consists of six separate elements.

* The engine
* The motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K)
* The motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H)
* The energy store (ES)
* The turbocharger (TC)
* The control electronics (CE)

Drivers are allowed five of each component, with the teams allowed to mix and match each element.

But once a sixth component is required the driver will receive a penalty.

Penalties range from a from a five-place grid drop, a ten-place grid drop, or starting the race from the pit lane.

The penalties also roll over, so if a driver is handed a five-place grid slot but qualifies just two places from the back of the grid, then the remaining place penalty will occur at the next race.

In Italy Toro Rosso?s Daniil Kvyat became the first driver to suffer a penalty as he used a sixth Renault engine.

But whilst he was the first he certainly will not be the last as four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel fifth engine of the season is close to reaching the end of its life-span.

?We have to look after what?s happened here but I think the reality is that Sebastian will take a sixth engine in Austin because it?s inevitable he?s going to have to use it, I don?t think this engine can really go too much further.? Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports.

In Russia, Mercedes AMG clinched the 2014 Formula One World Constructors championship, ending the four year reign of Red Bull Racing.

Horner added: ?We?ve had a little bit of time to get our heads around it ? from February in reality. In all honesty, Mercedes have done the best job this year and all it does is motivate you,’

?You know how much work goes into winning a Championship and to win it four times in a row is an enormous achievement. We?ve had a disastrous year but we?re still second; we?re the only other team to win a grand prix and three of them at that.

?What we?ve managed to recover from this season ? and the fact we?ve managed to take them this far into the year ? I think is very much a result in itself.