Honda regains one development token from FIA

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Honda has regained one of its power unit development tokens after clarification from the FIA regarding its latest update.

The Japanese manufacturer upgraded its engine block and exhaust in Malaysia, with Fernando Alonso running the update. At the time Honda believed it would be required to spend two tokens - one on each component - leaving it with one remaining for the season.

However, the FIA responded to Honda to explain the engine block upgrade was focused on improved reliability and therefore did not required a development token to be spent.

"As Honda we had applied to the FIA as two tokens, one for the engine block and one for lightweight exhaust," an Honda spokesperson confirmed to F1i. "The FIA came back to us in Malaysia that the engine block is related to reliability, therefore it was not necessary for us to submit token use.

"The FIA has only accepted our one token and asked us to re-submit the engine block change without use of tokens this weekend. The final notification and confirmation from the FIA was last night."

Honda said in Malaysia its latest upgrade was likely to be its last of the 2016 season, with Alonso now having his full allocation of this year's engine and Jenson Button set to receive the updated version in Austin.

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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.