Fernando Alonso said that Aston Martin needs to analyse the “very bad” Honda engine experience that he suffered during the Spanish Grand Prix.
Alonso called for an Aston Martin investigation after finishing P17 at the Madring, two laps down on race winner Kimi Antonelli. The Spaniard’s comments come after Honda declared that it can now focus fully on power unit performance, having made sufficient progress with driveability.
Fernando Alonso requests Aston Martin review of Honda PU gremlins
Aston Martin had expected to struggle last time out at Monza with a Honda PU lacking grunt, though the first Madring-hosted Spanish Grand Prix marked a trip into the unknown.
There was to be no repeat of the points-scoring joys from back at Zandvoort. Alonso brought the sole remaining Aston Martin home in 17th.
The two-time world champion opened up on his struggles with the Honda, something which Aston Martin needs to investigate.
“The engine was very bad today,” he told PlanetF1.com and others after the race in Madrid.
“I think the boost control was difficult today, and I nearly stalled on the pit-stops and with some of the blue flags as well, letting the people go and slowing down.
“The engine was struggling to recover after that, so I was losing a lot of time on the blue flags.
“We need to analyse what happened.”
Lance Stroll meanwhile failed to make the chequered flag in the sister Aston Martin AMR26.
The Canadian said he was missing a heap of downforce after striking debris at the start of the race. From there, a brake pedal issue set in, with Stroll forced to retire after getting stranded down an escape road. He had “no power to spin it around.”
Stroll was not the only driver to suffer with a long brake pedal in Madrid. The same issue prompted Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton to retire from the race.
“We had some damage after Lap 1,” Stroll revealed. “I hit some debris, so we lost like 40 or 50 points of downforce.
“And then I had some brake issues during the race. The pedal was going really long, so I locked-up. We had the long pedal. We had the damage. I tried to spin it around. Had no power to spin it around. So our race was slowly just degrading.”
Having failed to set a time in qualifying due to a suspected water pressure issue, Stroll – who carried a 40-place grid penalty into qualifying after Aston Martin opted for an engine change – recorded his ninth DNF of the season.
“It’s always going to be difficult when you’re lacking a lot of power and you have reliability issues and we’re not where we want to be on downforce and all that stuff,” he stressed on his and Aston Martin’s current predicament.
“Until we make all these things better, it’s going to be difficult.”
More on Aston Martin and Honda from PlanetF1.com
Honda makes new engine announcement after Spanish GP
Brundle and Rosberg in fresh disagreement over Fernando Alonso F1 future
Aston Martin sits P10 in the Constructors’ standings with three points scored.
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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Originally published by Planet F1 —
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