Stoffel Vandoorne to escape penalty?

F1 News: McLaren is still waiting for news from Honda on whether Stoffel Vandoorne will escape an engine change penalty at this weekend’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.

The tight-and-twisty Marina Bay circuit offer McLaren one of its best remaining chances to add to its points tally this season, with its MCL32 chassis better suited to high downforce venues.

But Vandoorne could face a grid penalty in Singapore if Honda is unable to repair the MGU-K shaft that broke on his engine at Monza.

A failure of the component in qualifying could not be fixed in time for the race, and the Belgian was forced out of the Italian Grand Prix by a repeat failure.

Although there had been optimism that Honda would be able to fix the problem without the need for a new engine, that has not yet been confirmed by the Japanese manufacturer.

“Singapore is one of the best chances of the year in terms of matching our package to the characteristics of this gruelling street circuit,” said McLaren racing director Eric Boullier.

“We’ve worked hard to try to avoid incurring any penalties which could halt our progress there, and we hope that following Stoffel’s retirement in Monza we won’t have to use any new power unit elements, although this is yet to be officially confirmed.”

Honda introduced an updated power unit in Italy that helped Vandoorne to a slot in Q3.

With Singapore’s expected to be a better hunting ground for the team, Boullier was bullish about the potential to get both cars into the final part of qualifying.

“The second best after Budapest,” he said of how well the circuit would suit McLaren’s car.

“In Singapore, it should be both cars in Q3 as a target.”

Category: Formula One