....Even a 20 place grid penalty isn't enough? Alonso facing drive-through penalty Fernando Alonso could be hit with a drive-through penalty at the Austrian GP as the McLaren driver has a 20-place grid penalty. On Thursday it emerged that the Spanish would face a penalty as Honda needed to change his power unit. More details of that have now been revealed. Needing a new Internal Combustion Engine, Turbo Charger and MGU-H, Alonso's penalties have added up. Coming to a total of 20, the double World Champion is facing either a time penalty or a drive-through as it is unlikely he will be able to take the full 20-place drop.
The technical rules and sporting regulations are equally idiotic. This seems to be a sport with a death wish.....
You are not wrong there: I have never seen anything like if. That, and the penalties dished by the stewards are really the pit.
Perhaps they should have him start on 3 wheels and then pit for the 4th after the start.... The reg is stupid to penalize a car out of the race before it even starts. They may as well simply use it for a test session
The FIA and the fans know that Honda and Renault are struggling with the stupid new rules. Instead of helping them out of this, they are basically kicking them even when they are down. Such silly, stupid rules, and you wonder why F1 isn't popular anymore. SHould F1 close down tomorrow, i will never miss it. Not one bit.
Same happened to Verstappen last race. I think it's idiotic to penalize drivers this much for things that are so completely out of their hands. I think the entire Red Bull outfit (including STR) are also starting on the back row. I don't see anything gained by this. F1 doing a solid job running themselves into the ground at lightning speed.
I think it's even sadder that we are lamenting these cars getting penalties, and unlike other years, we can't even have thoughts of 'it will be fantastic to watch them cutting through the traffic', cos it's not a race even at the front, so anything other than a Williams, Ferrari or Mercedes starting at the back is unlikely to trouble tenth place, and hence, it's a non-event on the excitement scale too
Quite why f1 teams are not allowed to use whatever spare parts they need I don't know, they should be able to decide on what they use themselves, engines, gearboxes, tyres, so what, use what you like as far as I'm concerned. What if Renault or McLaren get to the last few races and have penalties in every race, and it costs them places on the constructors? That is going to cost teams potentially millions
What makes this all so ridiculous is its the teams themselves that voted for this rubbish set of tech regs and rules. The sooner that responsibility is taken away from them the better. Muppets
It was designed to help fix the costs. Develop an engine, lock it in, and build a set production run. You needed to build an engine that would last X number of races, rather than super light one race specials.
Not yet for me. Call it karma or justice finally catching up with McLaren but AFAIC I'd love both Marussias to finish ahead of a McLaren on the track.
I suspect this week end the Manor cars will most definatley finish ahead of Mclaren, the Honda engine is going backwards, any upgrade seems to be having a negative effect on the little reliability Honda had.
But if you can't afford f1, don't be in it. Those that can't afford to buy a Ferrari don't buy them, they buy other cars, same in the pinnacle of racing. I'd rather see 16 ultimate race cars than 16 plus a few stragglers getting in the way
+1 F1 is not for the weak of heart nor for the weak of wallet. Get rid of the technology freezes and let engineering prowess battle it out. Also stop with the green agenda; F1 is not fooling the folks over at Greenpeace. Its a frivolous sport that's needs to remain uncompromised up to the day motorsports are legislated into extinction.
This is a learning season for Honda. So it is a write off for Alonso. Doesnt matter where he starts from. Just hoping next year will be different. Would be great to see Honda dominate again.
I'd certainly like to believe that. I just can't imagine the amount of stick Honda is getting. And how stupid the rules are. Why did they even bother to return?