McLaren are hoping they’ve found a cure for their overheating gearbox problem and will test the fix during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday.
The team headed to Singapore with high hopes of scoring a handful of points. Both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were running in the points as their power problems were masked by the slow layout of the Marina Bay circuit.
However both later retired with the same problem, which Alonso is hoping won’t trouble them again.
“Last week in Singapore we retired with an overheating gearbox,” said the Spaniard on Thursday.
“We studied [the problem], we came up with solutions and we’ll test those solutions tomorrow in the free practice.”
With the team failing to score any points for a tenth time this season, Alonso believes the criticism is deserved, but insisted both McLaren and Honda are working hard to resolve the issues which have plagued their season so far.
“We should be criticised, that is understandable but from the team point of view we can only do what we can do,” he added.
“Everyone is doing 100 per cent of their ability. We need to learn lessons.”
