Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso started race knowing retirement was inevitable

Fernando Alonso says he started the Mexican Grand Prix knowing retirement was inevitable due to an MGU-H problem.

The McLaren driver retired at the end of the opening lap after reporting a loss of power having started from 18th due to a grid penalty. Alonso explained McLaren had seen a problem with his MGU-H overnight and had not had enough time to replace the part in order to make the car reliable for the race.

“Yesterday night we spotted some MGU-H rotation speed problems and then this morning we confirmed it,” Alonso said. “There was no time to replace it anymore so the possibilities were not to start the race or try to do as much as we could knowing that maybe one lap was the maximum. I think out of respect for the fans we tried to race and the first lap at least was enjoyable, the first three corners.”

Asked if he started the race expecting to retire, Alonso replied: “We knew.

“Not expecting, we knew. Yesterday Jenson didn’t take part in qualifying, if today I didn’t take part in the race it was not good. I think I showed enough respect for the fans because I really wanted to go to the grid, do the start and then we’d see what happened. We confirmed our pessimistic thoughts but at least we tried and it’s always better to try.”

And Alonso admits it has been a frustrating two races for him having hit reliability issues in Austin last weekend too.

“Yeah I think it has been two long weeks now away from home with zero points and not even participating so it’s very frustrating.”

REPORT: Rosberg holds off Hamilton in Mexican GP as Vettel crashes

AS IT HAPPENED: Mexican 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.