Fernando Alonso had a tough weekend at the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, and his frustrations with grappling the Honda power unit in his Aston Martin were easy to hear in an unbroadcast radio message.
The Spaniard came into the weekend off the back of an astonishing eighth-place finish at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, hoping the less power-hungry Marina Bay Circuit could give more points for Aston Martin.
But a mistiming of being sent out into traffic during Q2 on Saturday, coupled with a pit lane start through an engine component change on Sunday, rendered his chances as improbable.
Alonso finished the race in 16th place, with teammate Lance Stroll retiring early on due to a clutch issue.
Despite being able to boast finishing a lap ahead of Cadillac, Alonso seemed in no mood to find many positives from the excruciating race in the Asian heat.
“Obviously, there is always something more to extract from the car, if we redo the race again,” he said after the race.
“[I] Had a little bit of understeer in the race – we could not manage to fix it. Then a lot of energy deployment problems in the race, not deploying in the right place at the right time, especially after the Virtual Safety Cars.
“We lost a lot of places and a lot of ground with the lack of deployment. So yeah, we need to look at that.”
Fernando Alonso’s unbroadcast radio message
Alonso is no stranger to being forthcoming in his views on Formula 1’s current regulations cycle, having been open in his less-than-complimentary remarks across its debut campaign.
And it is common knowledge that the returning Honda manufacturer has struggled with its exclusive power unit for the Silverstone-based squad.
Whilst the Japanese marque has indeed improved greatly over the season, there are many issues still to fix.
And as Alonso alluded to, deployment on the Virtual Safety Car restart was a big issue.
As racing speed resumed, Alonso was swamped by two cars, the 45-year-old took to his radio and, giving a wry chuckle, gave his blunt asssessment: “Energy. It’s ridiculous, this engine.”
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