The McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button will start today’s Austrian GP from the back row of the grid before taking additional penalties early in the race, the FIA has confirmed.
As only 20 cars will compete in the grand prix, and both drivers have been hit with 25-place demotions for breaching their permitted engine allowances, Alonso will also receive a drive-through penalty while Button will suffer a ten-second stop-and-go punishment. Both punishments have to be taken within the the first three laps of the race.
A stiffer sentence has been meted out against Button as the Englishman, who set the 17th fastest time in qualifying compared to Alonso’s 15th, could have only served three of his 25-place demotion.
Meanwhile, despite also receiving a 10-place demotion after his Red Bull car was fitted with its fifth different engine of the year, Daniil Kvyat will line up from the heady heights of 15th.
The FIA has clarified that demotions are levied in the order that they were notified by the teams of their additional changes. So while Kvyat, the first of four drivers to appear on the governing body's lengthy charge sheet this weekend, was due to be relegated from eighth to 18th, he has been subsequently bumped forward three places as his punishment was handed down before those of Alonso and Button as well as team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Like Kvyat, the Australian is also running his fifth engine of the year this weekend.
Ricciardo will also take an in-race punishment - a five-second time penalty at his opening pitstop - as only four of his 10-place grid drop could be applied.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Red Bull boss Christian Horner has urged a rethink of the rules in the wake of both Honda and Renault exceeding their permitted allowance of new engine parts for the year even before the season has reached the halfway stage.
While designed to save costs and deter any team from introducing an additional engine as a late-season power boost, the ignominious plight of former world champions Red Bull and McLaren, caused by the chronic unreliability of their engine suppliers, has resulted in the engine-penalty regulations being branded farcical by its critics.
Former Cosworth boss Mark Gallagher, a guest on this week’s edition of the Midweek Report, has called for an immediate suspension of the penalties ‘for the credibility of F1 and the engine companies’.
Updated Austrian GP starting grid
1) Lewis Hamilton
2) Nico Rosberg
3) Sebastian Vettel
4) Felipe Massa
5) Nico Hulkenberg
6) Valtteri Bottas
7) Max Verstappen
8) Felipe Nasr
9) Romain Grosjean
10) Pastor Maldonado
11) Marcus Ericsson
12) Carlos Sainz
13) Sergio Perez
14) Kimi Raikkonen
15) Daniil Kvyat
16) Roberto Merhi
17) Will Stevens
18) Daniel Ricciardo
19) Fernando Alonso
20) Jenson Button