Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso laughs at McLaren's 105-place grid drop

Fernando Alonso says McLaren should receive a cake for accumulating a total grid penalty of 105 places between its two cars.

The two McLaren drivers will start from the back of the grid for today's Belgian Grand Prix having taken a number of new power unit components this weekend. The excessive penalty is a result of Honda updating its power unit and then replacing components to ensure it has a bigger pool to use for the rest of the season.

When asked about the size of the penalty on a grid of 20 cars, Alonso joked McLaren should celebrate its achievement.

"We should have a cake or something!" Alonso said. "It's a world record, no?!"

Team-mate Jenson Button says the number carries no significance and ultimately delivers a fair penalty.

"It's 105 but it's just a number because we start at the back of the grid," Button said. "So it doesn't mean anything. I think the regulation is fair that if you have the penalties you start at the back, because starting at the back for us is a bigger penalty than it is for the cars at the front if they start at the back. So it's fair for everyone, I think, the way the regulation is now."

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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.