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Alonso: "The team seems to have made a step backwards"

19:15, 02 Sep 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Fernando Alonso believes that McLaren has made a step backwards with regards to reliablity since switching to Renault power units over Honda. The Spaniard was forced to retire within the opening 10 laps of the Italian Grand Prix due to another power unit problem.

Speaking to the media after the race, Alonso was frank in his assessment of the McLaren Renault partnership, claiming that the team has in fact made a further step backwards since switching from Honda power.

"I think it's a shame because sometimes we were in the points, like we were in this grand prix, and the reliability of the team seems to have made a step backwards and we definitely need to improve that for the remainder of the season."

The Spaniard was forced to retire early on during the race due to a power unit issue, completing a bitterly disappionting end to his final Italian Grand Prix outing.

"We had a problem in an electrical part or something because the car was misfiring in Turn 7 and 8, so I had no power in those corners.

"Suddenly the car switched off and I came into the pitlane."

He added that the retirement was unfortunate due to taking a penalty specifically for the race at Monza having expected to be competitive at the power circuit.

"It was two circuits where we didn't know if we should penalise or not, changing the engine, starting last and expect not to be very competitive.

"But we were better than expected - we were already in the points on lap five or six, and that's why we didn't change the engine and in both races we had to retire very early.

"Now we'll have to change the engine in the next races so on top of these two zeroes, there are more to come."