SUZUKA, Japan -- Honda has been reimbursed with a single engine token after the FIA clarified the purpose of its latest engine block upgrade.
The Japanese manufacturer brought a new engine block and exhaust to the Malaysian Grand Prix in the belief the updates would cost one performance token each. However, the FIA only deemed the lightweight exhaust to be related to performance and decided the more durable engine block was a reliability upgrade, which does not fall under the token system.
"As Honda we had applied to the FIA in Malaysia for a two token update, one for the engine block and one for lightweight exhaust," a Honda spokesperson told ESPN. "The FIA came back to us in Malaysia that the engine block is related to reliability, therefore it was not necessary for us to submit this token use.
"Therefore, the FIA only accepted one token use and asked us to re-submit the engine block change without the use of tokens this weekend. The final notification and confirmation from the FIA was last night."
Only Alonso is running the new engine block in Suzuka after he took a grid penalty in Malaysia to add the updated component to his pool ahead of this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix. In order to avoid a penalty at Honda's home race, Jenson Button will wait until the U.S. Grand Prix to fit the upgraded block, but both cars are running the lightweight exhaust.
Honda now has two tokens left to spend over the rest of the year, but said in Malaysia it was not expecting to bring any further updates for the remaining races of the season.