Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Button to take 50-place grid penalty

Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso will both receive grid penalties ahead of this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix.

Both drivers are being penalised for taking new power units, with Button finally receiving the updated Honda engine. Alonso first tested the update during Friday practice in Sochi - where he also took a grid penalty - before racing it in Austin last weekend, though a reliability issue cost him a chance of points.

Button receives the upgrade this weekend and will take two internal combustion engines [ICE] in order to have a big enough pool to choose from for the remaining three races. Button will also take two new MGU-H, MGU-K and turbochargers, with the combined penalty for the new components giving him a 50-place grid penalty.

Alonso's reliability issue saw him drop out of the top ten in the closing laps, and he will have a new ICE as a precautionary measure from Honda. The new engine results in a ten-place grid penalty for the Spaniard.

Button himself believes the timing of the penalties is sensible, with the 2009 world champion believing McLaren is set to struggle throughout the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.

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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.