Upgrades bring 35-place penalty for Vandoorne

Stoffel Vandoorne will take a 35-place grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix as a result of power unit updates being introduced by Honda.

Honda's head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa revealed before the summer break that the Japanese manufacturer could introduce as many as three new specifications of power unit this year, saying he was pushing to bring an upgrade to Spa-Francorchamps. Having achieved that aim, Honda will supply updates to the ICE, with Fernando Alonso receiving what is described as "spec 3.5" and able to avoid a penalty by getting the majority of the new parts without taking a complete new component.

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Vandoorne, however, needs a full new power unit due to an additional small update for reliability purposes. As a result he receives what Honda is calling "spec 3.6" as he gets the whole upgrade, taking a new ICE, MGU-H, MGU-K, turbocharger, energy store and control electronics. With all components being above the permitted four per season, Vandoorne receives a total grid penalty of 35 places.

"Both Fernando and Stoffel will be running upgraded power units this weekend," Hasegawa confirmed. "Unfortunately Stoffel will receive a grid penalty at his home grand prix, but it is important for us to introduce updates as soon as they are ready.

"It is positive that we have been able to introduce this next step forward so quickly, and we will continue to introduce updates throughout the remainder of the season."

The upgrade follows the successful introduction of Honda's third specification of power unit, with both drivers running the update from the Austrian Grand Prix onward. After its introduction, Vandoorne reached Q3 at the next race at Silverstone and both cars qualified in the top ten and scored points in Hungary.

Vandoorne himself said he was prepared for such a penalty at his home race after reliability problems earlier in the year.

"I think the penalties were kind of inevitable with the issues we had earlier this season," Vandoorne said. "Every new part we bring to the car now is giving us grid penalties. It's a shame to start the weekend like that, but with the weather here there are maybe more opportunities. We'll make the best of it."

Last season, Alonso took a grid penalty and started from 21st on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps but recovered to finish in seventh place in the race.