After investigating following the conclusion of the Belgian Grand Prix, Honda’s engineers could find no issue with Fernando Alonso’s power unit.
It has been speculated Alonso retired a perfectly healthy car in light of the performance levels the Honda power unit had been producing around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
The Spaniard retired his MCL32 from the race on lap 25 after numerous radio calls about the power out of the Honda engine. After a radio call asking if there was any chance of rain and then told ‘no’ by his race engineer, the two-time world champion stated there was ‘no power, no power’.
After the race, Alonso said: “For sure, is not easy to race like this, as you cannot have any good wheel-to-wheel battles. It was a difficult afternoon and we were not competitive in race trim.
“The car was too slow on the straights and it was impossible to have any battles out there, so points were also impossible today. Eventually, we had to stop due to an engine issue.”
However, Honda’s F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa added: “He radioed in with what he thought was a problem with the car, and although there was nothing showing in the data, we decided to stop the car as a precaution.”
As tensions between Alonso and Honda reach a tipping point ahead of signing off on the 2018 McLaren design, the animosity between the pair could reach new heights as Formula 1 heads to Monza where there is no hiding a deficit in outright horsepower.
