Fernando Alonso says McLaren has to treat the Austrian Grand Prix as an extended test session after receiving a 20-place grid penalty ahead of the race and losing vital set-up time in Friday practice.
Ahead of the weekend, Alonso's McLaren was fitted with its fifth engine, fifth MGU-H unit and fifth turbocharger of the season, exceeding the amount permitted for all three components in the regulations. The sum total of the penalties equates to 20 grid places, which will translate into a time penalty in the race - the severity of which will be based on where he qualifies.
Alonso is running a new nose and aerodynamic upgrade on the McLaren this weekend and said the track time would be more valuable for analysing the new parts than aiming for points.
"Definitely it's a little bit disappointing when you have that penalty before you start the weekend," Alonso said. "But in the factory last week we knew what was the goal of this weekend, which was the aero package and the improvements that we brought here and to have a clear answer when we finish the race here, so we have to use this weekend as a test.
"We have to sacrifice some weekends and unfortunately this is one of those and I think there are more to come. For the rest of the season we will have a few of these ones, but if we learn things it will be very useful and today we didn't manage to do so, so tomorrow we need to recover time."
Alonso said the new aero package offered some signs of improvement after changing from the old spec in FP1 to the new spec in FP2.
"I felt good with the new package and from FP1 to FP2 I felt more grip, so I think it's a step in the right direction, but definitely we need more time.
"Unfortunately we lost quite a lot of time on the track. In FP1 we had an electrical issue with a connector and then some software issues where we could not leave the garage. In FP2 we stopped as a precaution after Jenson's problems with a spark plug.
"We have new engines fitted on the car so we had to run safe today and investigate the problem to ensure no issues tomorrow. Unfortunately we lost a little bit of time because we need some laps to understand the new aero package and performance of the car, and hopefully tomorrow we can recover this time.
"We have some time ahead of us [before qualifying] and we need to investigate properly why this happened today. We have, I'm sure, some solutions for tomorrow and it's the way it is with technology that is so complex. These days in Formula One little things stop cars running, even in FP1. A wrong number in the software doesn't allow the car to put it in first gear and you stay in the garage until you discover that little number is wrong.
"There are things we need to fix, put in place and optimise, especially because with a new aero package you need laps, you need to make some changes in the suspension and the brake balance - things you need to optimise for that kind of aero philosophy. We missed that time today and hopefully we can recover tomorrow."