McLaren has to return 105 places: cake for world record penalty

D he FIA ​​inspectors couldn't keep up in Spa after logging the engine penalties. Actually only 4 engines are allowed in 2015. Because Honda is back in Formula 1 for the first year, the Japanese were granted a Joker unit that could be changed without penalty. However, that was still not enough.

In Belgium, drive units 7 and 8 have already been installed by Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. With the individual drive elements, the pilots accumulated a downgrade in the starting grid from a total of 105 places. 'For that we should get a cake to celebrate. After all, that's a new world record,' said Alonso in gallows humor. There was also a lot of ridicule from the fans on social networks.

With the double change, McLaren gave themselves some breathing space for the rest of the season. There are now two fresh units in the engine pool. It is well known that a race cannot go further than the end of the field. After a rule change this season, penalties will no longer be carried over to multiple races.

Starting at the end of the field is penalty enough

'Of course you can always discuss which penalty is fair. In my opinion, being transferred to the end of the field is tough enough,' said team principal Eric Boullier. 'Fortunately, the complicated old rule with stop-and-go and drive-through penalties, which was developed by engineers, has been abolished.'

With the change of the engine, Honda had redeemed 3 tokens. Yasuhisa Arai, the sports director of the Japanese, had previously announced that the update would be at Ferrari level in terms of power. But there was nothing to be seen along the way. McLaren was far from the competition in the top speed tables. In addition, there were always problems with reliability.

'I never said that about Ferrari,' Arai defended himself. 'The updates have not proven to be as effective as we had hoped because it is not an easy track. In addition, we did not have much time in the free practice to evaluate the updates,' said the apology.

Button surprised by McLaren deficit

However, the drivers were frustrated that things were not going as fast as promised: 'I actually had a good lap in qualifying,' explained Button. 'As I said thengot that I was missing more than a second forward, I was a bit surprised. But the others are also developing. Force India has taken a step. And Sauber has got a new engine that has more power. '

But Button hasn't lost hope:' This is one of the toughest courses for us. Monza is getting tough too. But I hope that things will get a little better in Singapore. 'Team boss Boullier takes refuge in perseverance:' We haven't lost patience with Honda and are happy to have them as partners. Of course we are not where we would like to be. But we're working hard to change that.