Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso denies outbursts were a message to Honda

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Fernando Alonso insists his radio outbursts during the Japanese Grand Prix were not aimed at Honda executives at Suzuka.

The Spaniard was unhappy at being overtaken so easily in a straight line during Sunday’s race, describing the situation as “embarrassing” over team radio and at one stage shouting: “GP2 engine! GP2! Argh!”

With Honda’s home race seeing a number of high-level executives from the engine manufacturer attending - including Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo (pictured) - Alonso said he was not targeting them with the comments.

“They know – they don’t need me to send any message of frustration.”

And Alonso - who was criticised by Ron Dennis for his radio messages - says there were positive elements he could take from Sunday’s race having finished in 11th place.

“Both cars finished after a double DNF in Singapore so, on the positive side, we keep improving reliability, keep improving from our weak points and don’t repeat errors like in Singapore with the gearbox, so we must keep improving things.”

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AS IT HAPPENED: Japanese Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.