McLaren’s Fernando Alonso had no surprise when he heard Red Bull Racing’s decision of switching to Honda power from the 2019 Formula 1 season.
Alonso has been on the receiving end of the troubled time seen by McLaren and Honda since the 2015 F1 season until 2017 when the top brass at the Woking-based team decided to move on from the Japanese manufacturer.
Honda eventually found support with Toro Rosso which immediately started the speculations regarding them extending its supplying chain to the senior Red Bull team once its contract with Renault runs out at the end of the 2018 season.
Indeed, Red Bull announced a two-year contract with Honda until the 2020 season, ending its 12-years relationship with Renault. When asked Alonso if he was surprised with their decision, he started with a straight ‘no’.
“To be honest, what the other teams do, I think it’s difficult to analyse from the outside,” he said. “We don’t have all the data, all the things they have so I’m happy for them if they take this decision.
“Happy for Honda [as well] to show their commitment to F1 and for the future and at the same time, it’s not a surprise. There were some talks, some rumours for a couple of months already about this relationship and now it’s official.”
When pressed further to give his thoughts on the Honda unit from what he has seen so far from Toro Rosso’s performance, he added: “I don’t know. What I know is that the Renault engine we have in our car is quite good.
“Last year, at this point, we had zero points and this year we are seventh in the drivers’ championship and fifth in the constructors’ championship and the relationship is better and healthier than ever. That’s the only thing I know, the present. The past, I don’t know.”
Even though he has scored handy points this year, however, there is little chance still for him to win his third F1 title. However, he is only one step away from his quest to a Triple Crown after winning the Le Mans 24 Hours race last weekend.
The Spaniard still has the FIA World Endurance Championship to see through, but for a Triple Crown, it is only Indy 500 remains where he was forced to retire in 2017 while running inside the Top 10.
With McLaren looking to enter IndyCar in 2019, it has been wildly speculated that Alonso will move on to America to compete in the series so as to have a chance to win the Indy 500 – however, the two-time F1 champion remains tight-lipped about his future for now.
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