Alonso says latest Alpine failure 'cannot be bad luck'

A frustrated Fernando Alonso openly questioned Alpine's level of preparation after enduring in Mexico City his sixth retirement of the season, the Spaniard insisting "it cannot be bad luck".

Alonso was running seventh in the closing stages of Sunday's race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, convincingly leading F1's midfield when his Renault engine lost a cylinder and then gave up the ghost.

The two-time world champion's body language as he exited his stricken A522 left no doubt as to the feelings of anger that were boiling under Alonso's helmet.

Simply put, it was the Spaniard's third engine-related DNF in seven races and he had no intention of merely shrugging off the failure.

"Car 14 stopped. For car 14 there are always reliability issues," he said before explaining his predicament.

"With 20 laps to the end I lost one cylinder, so I was running with five cylinders, 20% less power. I was 20 seconds in front of the McLarens and my team mate.

"So I think the race until that point it was exceptional. Austin and here I rate my best two races in terms of pace. It was better when we blew up at the end like this, we stopped the car and we stop doing those laps."

Once again, the shortfall in points wasn't lost on the F1 veteran.

"My level is at the highest of the season at the moment and the results and the standings at the end of the year will be one of the lowest," added Alonso.

"So it’s a little bit frustrating but there’s nothing I can do.

"I lost 60 points this year, so we add another six, so it’s around 66. And obviously all the others they benefit, so everyone scores two more than what they should.

"But yes, it’s just amazing that only one or two cars retire at every race and it’s always car 14.

"I’ve blown up five engines I think this year, [plus] the problem in Australia in qualifying and in Austria I didn’t even start the race because it was a blackout.

"I think in 19 races, more or less in 50% of the races we didn’t score the points we deserved.

"Nothing we can do now."

• Read also: Alonso to join Aston Martin for Abu Dhabi post-season test

The backdrop to Alpine's engine reliability issues is well known. Ahead of F1's freeze on engine regulations, Renault took an aggressive approach to the design of its 2022 power unit, opting to put the emphasis on power and output and improve reliability further down the road.

However, while a number of engine failures were predictable, an overwhelming majority of the latter have occurred on Alonso's side of the Alpine garage.

"I think we are unprepared," said Alonso, dismissing random misfortune. "The engine cannot finish the races.

"t cannot be bad luck when you have to change six or seven engines as we did and we’re still not finishing the races.

"I think they have some job to do next winter. Hopefully not too much."

Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer pushed back against his disappointed driver's comments, insisting Alonso was simply the victim of "the luck of the draw".

"This was an engine issue, and we don’t have the same people preparing an Esteban engine or a Fernando engine, they’ll mix around," he said.

"The probability of this happening isn’t zero, so it can happen, but it is lower to always happen on one side or the other. I think it’s the luck of the draw.

"It’s not that we can find [a reason]. It’s not that we can see that ‘it’s this set of circumstances that it’s always on Fernando’s side’."

Sunday's latest set-back has only further eroded Alonso's patience. It is now clear that the season can't end soon enough for the future Aston Martin charger.

"I don’t care," he said when asked how Alpine would fair in Brazil next week.

"I’ll just go there, drive as fast as I can, go to Abu Dhabi and celebrate with the team our last race and then fly back home."

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