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F1's Fernando Alonso gets 35-place penalty for latest Honda engine change

MONZA, Italy — McLaren's Fernando Alonso will collect a 35-place grid penalty for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix after Honda announced changes to his car's power unit. The penalty means the double world champion, whose future at McLaren remains uncertain due to the team's continuing engine woes, will start at the back of the 20-car grid for the last European race of the season. His chances were limited anyway at Monza's 'Temple of Speed,' the fastest circuit on the calendar where engine performance is crucial. His Belgian teammate Stoffel Vandoorne suffered a similar fate when he was handed a 65-place penalty for his home race at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend. Such meaningless penalties incurred through no fault of the driver have come increasingly under scrutiny in Formula One with some saying the system has got out of control and must change. "I hate the fact that we're having to affect the racing because of the technical issues," Formula One managing director Ross Brawn, a title-winning former team principal and ex-Ferrari technical director, told motorsport.com. "I know you can say if a car breaks down in a race that's a technical issue and you've affected the race, but I think the fans understand that. "For a fan to stomach that his hero is on the back of the grid because he had to change the engine, that's not great sport," added the Briton. Brawn suggested a different form of penalty, or removing it altogether, but acknowledged that the sport might have to wait until 2021 when new engine regulations will come into force. The current Formula One regulations stipulate that each driver may use no more than four power units during a championship season, with that number due to be reduced to three next year. Each power unit is made up of six separate elements; the engine, the motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), the motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), the energy store, turbocharger and control electronics. Grid penalties are imposed if a driver uses more than four of any one of the elements during the course of a season, and for successive breaches. Honda said Alonso was now on his seventh engine and MGU-K, his ninth turbocharger and MGU-H, his sixth energy store and fifth control electronics. Alonso retired from the Belgian Grand Prix but some components of the power unit used there will be run again in Friday's second practice after Honda said they could find no obvious problem.

F1 legend Mika Hakkinen to become McLaren's public face

Two-time Formula 1 World Champion Mika Hakkinen is back at McLaren. The manufacturer announced Hakkinen is taking up a PR position at McLaren, becoming a Partner Ambassador, and it was at McLaren Mercedes that Hakkinen scored his championships in the late 1990s. For Hakkinen, the ambassador position means joining members of the manufacturer's marketing arm, so it is likely he will be seen in prominent McLaren advertisements and business ventures. In its press release, McLaren mentions executive director Zak Brown and CEO Mike Flewitt as Hakkinen's future collaborators. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. As Hakkinen says: "I've always considered McLaren to be my home in Formula 1, and I still have an enormous place in my heart for everyone in the team. Of course, the past few years for McLaren haven't been easy, but I've always believed that it's only a matter of 'when' rather than 'if' McLaren will come good again – and I want to play my part in helping that happen. "Returning to McLaren was an easy decision for me – I've never really lost contact, and I still know a lot of the hard-working men and women there from my eight-and-a-bit seasons with the team." This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Hakkinen also says he drives a McLaren P1 supercar. "I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the exciting world of McLaren Automotive. I have a modern-day McLaren in my fleet of road cars, and it's a truly superb machine." Related Video:

McLaren 570S Sprint is both track day weapon and bargain

If you've ever dreamed of getting behind the wheel of a McLaren engineered specifically for the race track, this could be your best shot. It's the new 570S Sprint, and it's set to debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed tomorrow. Like the P1 GTR and the Sprint versions of the 650S and 12C before it, the new McLaren 570S Sprint is meant to be a track toy for gentlemen racers, without the limitations imposed by any specific racing class regulations. It's based on the 570S coupe at the heart of McLaren's entry-level Sports Series, but takes the opposite approach from the softer 570GT. The team in Woking has installed a new radiator behind a reshaped front bumper. The front splitter and underbody are borrowed from the 570S GT4, and there's a giant rear wing made of carbon fiber to give it more downforce than any other model in the series. Naturally the cockpit is all stripped out, and fitted with an FIA-spec roll cage, racing bucket with six-point harness, and a fire extinguisher. The suspension carries over from the road-going model, but comes mounted here to center-locking mags wearing Pirelli slicks. Though it didn't provide any concrete details, the manufacturer says that "power and torque levels have been optimised to ensure the ultimate levels of driver engagement and the best levels of noise." You can get an idea about the latter in the short video clip below. Deliveries are set to begin next year, with pricing in the UK starting at the equivalent of $218k – which you could easily on a road-going model without running out of boxes to tick on the options list. Sprint buyers, meanwhile, will be able to spec options like an onboard air jacking system, a passenger seat, various livery options from McLaren Special Operations, and even a GT4 compliance package. The one option they won't have, however, is driving it home at the end of the track day. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. McLAREN 570S SPRINT TO MAKE GLOBAL DEBUT AT THE 2016 GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED 22 Jun 2016 The recently-announced McLaren 570S Sprint will make both static and dynamic global debuts at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed as part of the largest presence by McLaren to date.