If McLaren fans thought that the Canadian Grand Prix signalled the worst of the team’s struggles this season; they were quite clearly proven to be wrong. An embarrassing amount of grid penalties saw the team effectively having their race ruined before it had even begun, and it took just seven laps for the team to start packing for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. With the potential to get a lot of data from running different-spec parts on different cars to gain some quite useful data, one car got wiped out after two corners, and yet more reliability troubles eliminated the other one.
2015 Austrian Grand Prix McLaren Review
No. 14 Fernando Alonso
Grid: P19 (Qualified P15 but suffered a 25 place grid penalty)
Race: Retired (Lap 1 collision)
A 25 place penalty on a field of 20 cars sounds absolutely absurd but that is precisely what Fernando Alonso had to endure. Twenty of those were for going above his four allocated power units for the entire season, whilst five came from an unscheduled gearbox change. Alonso would have had to serve a drive-through penalty for not having to take his entire penalty but he was eliminated by a wayward Kimi Räikkönen on the exit of the second corner on the first lap, wiping both out on the spot. Yet another retirement for Alonso brings his streak to four, the longest of his career to date.
No. 22 Jenson Button
Grid: P20 (Qualified P17 but suffered a 25 place grid penalty)
Race: Retired (Lap 7, electronics)
Also suffering a similar penalty to Alonso was Jenson Button, although the Brit had to serve the dreaded stop-and-go penalty as opposed to a drive through. Whilst Alonso had the new-spec front assembly, Button had to stick to the old-style parts. Button served his penalty, but an electrical problem side-lined him shortly afterwards. Yet another bad weekend for him too.
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