21/08/2015
NEWS STORY
As expected, McLaren has opted to change the engines in both cars, resulting in a 30-place drop for Fernando Alonso and a mere 25-place demotion for his teammate, Jenson Button. As it happens, the duo finished today's sessions 17th and 18th.
As far as the Spaniard's car is concerned today's changes mean a 7th Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), a 7th turbo charger (TC), a 7th MGU-H, 6th MGU-K and 6th Control Electronics (CE), which respectively earned a drop of 10 grid positions for the ICE, 5 for the TC, 5 for the MGU-H, 5 for the MGU-K and 5 for the CE.
Button, who luckily didn't require new Control Electronics, therefore only incurred the 25-place hit.
However, the Woking team, as previously reported, intends taking advantage of the fact that the rules no longer see further in-race penalties and consequently, having already been demoted to the back, will issue its two drivers with new engines again tomorrow. Consequently, having taken the penalty of penalties, the team also has the possibility of using the un-damaged units in future races without further punishment.
Confused?
"We've used seven or eight engines and we are in the eleventh race," said Alonso, "so definitely our position is not great in terms of reliability. If we had more of a penalty than starting last, we would accept it because this weekend is just a test for us."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.