Poor Stoffel Vandoorne. After going years before finally getting his long-overdue seat in Formula One, the Belgian rookie landed with troubled McLaren-Honda, and has endured no end of his rookie season nightmare.
The latest in a series of bad dreams is a 15-spot grid penalty given to Vandoorne for the upcoming Russian Grand Prix after McLaren-Honda suffered more engine reliability problems in first practice, requiring yet another power unit change for Vandoorne – this is his fifth power unit change in four races [!] and that means it will be a 15-spot penalty.
The good news? Despite starting the race at the back of the field, Vandoorne will be running a car fitted with a power unit that completed all 81 laps at the post-Bahrain Grand Prix test – with no troubles.
So at least there is that.