26/08/2016
NEWS STORY
Mercedes has confirmed that it has used more of its development tokens for an engine upgrade for this weekend.
From the outset, the German team has been cagey about the Spa weekend, only actually confirming (penalty inducing) component changes to Lewis Hamilton's engine once today's sessions were underway.
So it goes, talk of an upgrade is also now known to be true, and while the team has admitted to using five of its remaining development tokens on the upgrade it is not currently saying which parts of the power unit have been worked on.
At this stage the upgrade will only benefit the works team, customer teams having received the components that were part of the previous upgrade in Germany.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are likely to have the upgraded engines for FP3, hence talk of the Briton taking a further grid penalty to add to the thirty places he has already been demoted following successive new turbochargers and MGU-Hs.
The latest upgrade means that Mercedes has six tokens remaining - compared to Ferrari and Honda (3) and Renault (21) - with many tipping the German manufacturer to introduce another upgrade at Suzuka.
Check out our Friday gallery from Spa, here.