{"id":4714,"date":"2026-10-31T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=4714"},"modified":"2026-10-31T17:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:29:08","slug":"audi-changes-bortoletos-f1-power-unit-after-smoke-and-engine-failure-in-mexican-gp-fp3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/audi-changes-bortoletos-f1-power-unit-after-smoke-and-engine-failure-in-mexican-gp-fp3\/","title":{"rendered":"Audi changes Bortoleto&#8217;s F1 power unit after smoke and engine failure in Mexican GP FP3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Audi was forced to replace Gabriel Bortoleto&#8217;s power unit<\/strong> after the driver reported an engine problem during final practice in Mexico City.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Smoke was seen coming from the rear of the Audi<\/strong>, which returned to the garage without completing a timed lap.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The failure followed another disrupted session on Friday<\/strong>, leaving Bortoleto with extremely limited preparation for qualifying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Audi suffered another reliability setback during Saturday&#8217;s (31) final practice session for the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix, with <strong>Gabriel Bortoleto reporting a power unit problem before smoke emerged from the rear of his car<\/strong>. The German manufacturer subsequently decided to replace the unit, ruling the driver out of the remainder of FP3 as the team concentrated on preparing the car for qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bortoleto managed to return to the garage after detecting an abnormal sound from the engine. Television images showed smoke coming from the rear of the R26, prompting Audi&#8217;s mechanics to begin investigating the failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Audi faces another reliability setback in Mexico<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The incident compounded an already difficult weekend for Audi, which has struggled to complete its planned programme with Bortoleto&#8217;s car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The driver missed Friday&#8217;s FP1 because the team assigned the car to Freddie Slater as part of Formula 1&#8217;s mandatory rookie practice requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His return for FP2 was also disrupted by a technical problem, restricting him to the closing stages of the session. Bortoleto finished 22nd, leaving Audi with little representative information about his car&#8217;s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Saturday&#8217;s failure eliminated his final opportunity to complete qualifying simulations<\/strong>, particularly important at the Aut\u00f3dromo Hermanos Rodr\u00edguez, where the high altitude places additional demands on power units and cooling systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Audi subsequently confirmed that the power unit would be changed before qualifying. The team did not provide a detailed technical explanation identifying the component responsible for the failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>No additional grid penalty has been confirmed<\/strong> in connection with the replacement. Any sanction will depend on the components installed and their permitted allocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">H\u00fclkenberg provides Audi&#8217;s only representative FP3 time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Bortoleto remained in the garage, teammate Nico H\u00fclkenberg completed his programme and finished <strong>11th with a 1:18.560<\/strong>, 0.960s behind session leader Lando Norris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The German narrowly missed the top ten, with Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad finishing tenth on 1:18.137.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Audi therefore enters qualifying with a significant difference in preparation between its two drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bortoleto will have to rely on limited running from Friday and the information collected by H\u00fclkenberg, while the team must complete the power unit replacement in time for the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reliability problems also add to the manufacturer&#8217;s challenges during its first Formula 1 season as a full works operation, with Audi developing its own power unit under the 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elsewhere, Cadillac experienced a similar interruption when <strong>Sergio P\u00e9rez failed to set a timed lap in FP3 because of a precautionary power unit change<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norris topped the session with a <strong>1:17.600<\/strong>, beating Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli by just 0.001s, while Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/bottas-handed-50-place-grid-penalty-for-mexican-f1-grand-prix\/\">Mexican Grand Prix weekend has already produced several technical and disciplinary setbacks<\/a>, with Cadillac&#8217;s Valtteri Bottas receiving a 50-place grid penalty for exceeding his permitted power unit allocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> is following every session of the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend, with breaking news, full coverage and real-time updates in its <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/\">Formula 1 section<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why did Audi replace Bortoleto&#8217;s engine in Mexico?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bortoleto reported a power unit problem during FP3, and smoke was seen emerging from the rear of his car. Audi decided to replace the unit before qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Did Bortoleto complete a timed lap in FP3?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. The technical failure prevented him from recording a timed lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Will Audi receive a grid penalty for the engine change?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No additional penalty had been confirmed at the time of the report. A sanction depends on the components installed and whether their permitted allocations have been exceeded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Audi replaces Gabriel Bortoleto&#8217;s power unit after smoke and an engine problem in Mexican GP FP3. The team faces another setback before qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020319736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Gabriel Bortoleto","42wp_featured_image_credits":"Audi","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_ai_content_disclaimer":"","42wp_is_ai_content":false,"42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[{"id":13,"location":""}],"footnotes":"","42wp_hide_from_automatic":false,"42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[160,324,208,963],"42wp_author":[13],"class_list":["post-4714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-audi","tag-formula-1","tag-gabriel-bortoleto","tag-mexican-grand-prix","42wp_author-luana-marino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4715,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4714\/revisions\/4715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020319736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4714"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=4714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}