Grid drops confirmed for Alonso, Ricciardo

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will drop 20 and 10 places respectively on the grid for Sunday’s race in Austria thanks to penalties for using more than the permitted four power units in a season.

Ricciardo has taken on his fifth Renault engine, while Alonso is similarly on to his fifth Honda unit. Alonso’s larger penalty is the result of the Spaniard also using a fifth turbocharger and a fifth MGU-H, each of which incur an additional five-place drop.

Should either driver be unable to drop the required number of grid places - an inevitability for Alonso unless he qualifies on pole - then the penalties will be converted to in-race time penalties.

These can range from a 5-second time penalty to a 10-second stop-go penalty depending on the number of unused places.