McLaren driver will also race replacement chassis for Bahrain GP
Monday 4 April 2016 14:41, UK
Fernando Alonso will use his second power unit in as many races for the Bahrain GP after the previous system was "heavily damaged" in his frightening Melbourne crash.
Honda say they are "massively disappointed" the engine and associated hybrid systems could not be repaired after the MP4-31 barrel rolled through the Albert Park gravel in Alonso's 180mph accident.
The Spaniard's chassis has also been replaced for this weekend.
"We have recovered the power unit from Fernando's car used in Melbourne," said Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda's head of F1.
"After initial investigations, we are massively disappointed that the ICE and most of the surrounding parts have been heavily damaged, as the impact from the accident was just too great. We will be replacing the complete power unit in Bahrain."
Drivers are limited to five penalty-free power units for the season before grid penalties are applied, with Alonso now having just four remaining for the subsequent 20 races. McLaren's drivers used 23 different engines between them in 2015.
Having emerged unscathed from the crash, a well-rested Alonso says he is looking forward to returning to action in Bahrain and building on what he believes was a "promising" race weekend debut for McLaren's 2016 car.
"Firstly, I'm very pleased to be heading to Bahrain after the crash in Australia. I've spent some time resting and I can't wait to get back in the car," he said.
"Although on paper Melbourne wasn't a great race for us, before the crash I'd been having some good battles and the car felt pretty promising, so I hope in Bahrain we can experience more of the same.
"We're still pushing to bring upgrades to each race, so providing we can get everything to the car in time we'll be aiming to get as much track time as possible with the new chassis from the start of free practice."
Team-mate Button finished a lapped 14th in Australia after tyre strategy errors, but is also hoping for better in the desert of Bahrain.
"We made a couple of misjudgements on the strategy side in Melbourne, but it's all part of the learning curve with the new tyre compound rules," the 2009 Bahrain winner said.
"Together with the engineers we've studied the data and hopefully we can make some good calls in Bahrain, pull together the various stages of the race and achieve a more representative result.
"I hope we can mix it with the midfield pack - it's a very competitive area of the field - so we'll be pushing hard to get the maximum from our package as soon as we can."
Despite being serial race winners for most of the Bahrain GP's first dozen years on the calendar, McLaren have never won at Sakhir with Sergio Perez's sixth-place finish from 2013 their best result in the last five years.
Last year, the team qualified 2.5 seconds off pole position, while reliability problems ruled Button out of qualifying and the race. Alonso finished 11th.
