Fernando Alonso explains his frustration over his retirement from F1 Mexico GP as he is running out of patience with Alpine’s engine issues.
Having had an okish start to 2022 F1 season, Alpine’s Alonso had a dream run of points haul until the last few grands prix where he has had multiple issues. The engine troubles have mounted where he has been forced to take new parts.
His frustrations are increasing and it could be seen in Mexico after his retirement while being in a good position to score handy points. Alonso seemed to indicate that his side of the garage sees more trouble than Esteban Ocon’s, who is ahead in the standings.
“Car 14 has stopped so, yes, for car 14 there are always reliability issues,” said Alonso to media. “The thing with Honda was that both cars were stopping. This year it’s only car 14 that’s stopping. 20 laps to the end I lost one cylinder, so I was running with five cylinders, 20% less power.
“I was 20 seconds in front of the McLarens and my teammate, so the race until then was exceptional. I think Austin and here, I rate as my best two races this season in terms of pace. When it blew up at the end, we stopped the car and we stopped doing those laps,” summed up Alonso, who referred to time at McLaren with Honda.
“I think I lost 60 points this year so if we add another six, that’s 66,” continued Alonso. “And obviously all the others, they benefit, they score more than they should have. It’s just amazing that only one or two cars retire at every race and there is always car 14. I blew up five engines this year, I think.
“The problem in the qualifying in Australia, in Austria I didn’t even start the race because of the blackout. So in 19 races, more or less 50% of the races, we haven’t scored the points we deserve. But there’s nothing we can do now,” summed up Alonso as teammate Ocon felt both the cars have had issues and not just the Spaniard’s.
“I broke the gearbox in Imola,” said Ocon. “I broke the car in Silverstone, I DNFed in Singapore. You know, I can count them on as well on my side. I think we both had issues, but we I think happy with the strategy of the team, you know, to push the… you know, the pace of the car in front of the reliability.
“And that was always the aim of the team, obviously, today it was a bit unexpected. So something for us to understand. I’ve also changed six engines like him, obviously he broke one today. We on the same number of engine,” summed up Ocon.
Here’s the frustrations from Fernando Alonso: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2022-mexico-city-grand-prix-alonso-shows-his-frustration-after-another-dnf-for-alpine.1748151787067493254.html
Here’s Fernando Alonso on FIA steward and title comment