The Singapore Grand Prix turned out to be a disappointment for Aston Martin. Fernando Alonso said before the race that this would be “the most favorable circuit” remaining in the entire world championship, but the truth is he was not even close to scoring points, neither in the Sprint nor on Sunday. A contrast to Malaysia’s unexpected success seven days earlier.
After the Marina Bay race, Fernando Alonso outlined the reasons why the AMR26 has disappointed in Singapore. The main culprit once again points to the Honda engine, something Fernando Alonso did not even hide on the radio. As happened almost eleven years ago, Alonso again dismissed Honda’s engine in the middle of the race.
Handling and the turbo failed in Singapore
Fernando Alonso failed to score in Singapore. Although it was expected to be the best circuit of the year for Aston Martin, reality was quite different. The Asturian had no speed at any moment, not even to dream of points, neither in the Sprint nor on Sunday. A disappointment with a clear culprit.
Alonso shouted on the radio during the race that “this engine is ridiculous”, frustrated by being overtaken by Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar while trying to squeeze past the Cadillac of Sergio Pérez. In front of the press, Alonso was more cautious, but detailed the reasons why Honda continues to let Aston Martin down.
Alonso points out that “we have to resolve the problems: the handling and the turbo lag. There are a couple of things that are costing us a lot of time per lap, and we discovered them the hard way this weekend.” So bad was the situation that Honda changed the engine ahead of the race, but nothing improved.
Alonso started from the pits with the hope of clawing back, but the power unit continued to fail. According to the Asturian driver, “The weekend last in Sepang we had no problems. Even in Baku, where the first two sectors were very winding and very slow, we had no problems. It seems very specific to this circuit and I still have no answer.”
The two-time world champion details that “I don’t think the car knew at what point of the lap it was, because it activated the turbo in places where it didn’t need it and didn’t activate it on the straights. So that was a bit frustrating,” and on his radio he says that “when we were behind Checo, we were losing between 200 and 300 meters on the straight.”
It seems that Aston Martin’s tone regarding Honda is starting to change in the latest races and patience is running out at Silverstone.
Images | Aston Martin
