Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

McLaren pair could be set for more grid penalties

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Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button could be set for more grid penalties at this weekend's British Grand Prix.

Having already been hit by a 25-place grid penalty at the Red Bull Ring, Alonso was then involved in a "very strange" first lap crash with Kimi Raikkonen which saw his car end up wedged on top of the crash barrier. Button, meanwhile, was forced to stop to try and prevent damage to his own power unit.

Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai has revealed Alonso's accident could cause him to have to take new power unit components which would lead to another grid penalty at Silverstone.

"In Spielberg, Fernando was involved in an accident on the first lap of the race, and Jenson had a sensor failure issue," Arai said. "As a result, both cars were forced to retire.

"We have since completed thorough checks of both power units back at the factory, and we believe that Fernando's power unit has sustained damage from the accident, and it may be necessary to change the engine. As for Jenson's power unit this weekend, the issue is still under investigation."

And Arai says Honda will not have any new parts available for its power unit this weekend, instead tweaking its engine to run better with the updated MP4-30.

“Honda is not looking to put any hardware updates in place for the British Grand Prix, but we will optimise the power unit setting to the updated aero parts planned on the chassis. Silverstone is a classic technical high-speed circuit where the tyre degradation is high and it is tough on fuel.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.