McLaren has released footage of the first fire-up of the new Mercedes engine in its new MCL35M chassis marking a return to the power units they last used in 2014.

The very fast Spa Francorchamps has revealed a dramatic drop in the power levels of Ferrari F1 power unit compared to its rivals from Mercedes, Honda and Renault, and the Ferrari is the only team to set a slower time than last year.

All four Honda drivers will receive new engines of the Spec 4 V6 engine at the Russian GP to be ready for the next race in Japan without penalties and to finish the season without any further changes, the Japanese manufacturer confirmed ahead of the weekend of Sochi.

Honda and Ferrari introduced new parts for their power units for the first time this season, while Renault uses new units of their problematic MGU-K on all four Renault powered cars.

The Japanese engine manufacturer Honda for the first time since their 2015 comeback had an opportunity to collect with two cars as they clocked more laps than engines from Mercedes and Renault while Ferrari is convincingly on top with its customers Alfa Romeo and Haas.

After McLaren first released the video of their 2019 engine fire-up, Ferrari quickly followed with their 2019 F1 engine fire up, two weeks prior their new car launch in Maranello.

Eleven drivers took the new V6 F1 engines for 13th round of 2018 F1 Championship, but only Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg will get penalties as they used fourth engines.

One of the most intriguing changes in the technical regulations for 2018 is related to engine plenum air temperature monitoring, suggesting that the engine constructors had previously cooled the air in that place to get more performance out of the engine.

McLaren did a fantastic job adjusting their chassis to completely different Renault power unit architecture over a very limited period of time and they believe that they would be in trouble if they made their decision latter than they did.

The 2017 Renault F1 engine gained one second compared to the same period last year, although they initially expected almost much less gains with their new concept.