Toro Rosso racer Sebastian Vettel will approach next week’s Monaco grand prix with both a new car and a penalty.

The new STR3 requires a different gearbox installation to its predecessor, the 2007-spec STR2B that has been raced by the German, and his French teammate Sebastien Bourdais, at the first five races of the season.

This year’s rules stipulate a mandatory four-race life per gearbox, meaning that Vettel - to use a different gearbox at Monaco to the one that he drove to 17th place in Turkey - will receive a five-position demotion on the grid.

The same penalty will not apply to Bourdais, because the 29-year-old did not finish at Istanbul last Sunday.

“Monte Carlo is the last place you want a punishment like that,” the Faenza based team’s team co-owner Gerhard Berger lamented to the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.

The Austrian great, meanwhile, slammed suggestions that F1’s proposed budget cap could kick in at as much as 175 million euros in 2009.

“That is absolute insanity,” Berger said. “How can we save money like that?

“It doesn’t even include driver salaries nor contain the engine costs. In other words, the manufacturers don’t want to save anything at all.

“175 million? A real private team could never afford a budget like that.”

Bookmark to: