As Mark Webber bids to further extend his points lead this weekend, the Australian is set to benefit from the freshest engine among his championship rivals.
Before travelling to Korea, the other main contenders had already begun using their final and eighth engine of the season.
But Webber’s last Renault V8 was only fitted to his Red Bull before the last practice session on Saturday morning.
At the other end of the scale is Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who has been managing the usage of his range of eight engines for quite some races.
The Italian team has been playing down the situation recently, but boss Stefano Domenicali now admits that it is a significant issue.
"If we do (have more problems) it will be tremendously difficult to try to fight to the end," he said in Korea.