Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso to get power unit priority - Button

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Jenson Button says Fernando Alonso will retain priority with a new Honda power unit this season.

Alonso tested an updated Honda power unit during Friday practice for the Russian Grand Prix, reverting to an older specification in FP2 for the rest of the race weekend. Button says Alonso will race first with the updated engine but says he understands the need for Honda to get mileage as soon as possible rather than waiting for both drivers to receive it.

“It’s not actually for this weekend as such, the updated engine," Button said. "It’s for another race, but yes he will have it for that race and I won’t. But we need to get it on one of the cars and see what it gives us and mine will follow at the next grand prix after that.”

And Button says the remaining five races of the season are likely to be viewed as test sessions for McLaren in order to try and bounce back in 2016.

“I think just in a team you like to keep it equal but in the position we’re in we need to get the engines in the back of the car, we need to do a lot of mileage to see how it is for the future, for next year. So the next few races are going to be testing for us, they’re going to be very difficult.

"The only race that I think we could have a chance of doing OK is probably Austin and after that this car is going to be a test bed. We’re doing our best to get everything out of the car and to get the best result possible, but simply it will be a lot of testing for us and doing things that maybe you wouldn’t normally do in a season with a car and with the engine to make sure we are in the right place for next year.”

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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.