The two-time world champion pulled into the garage late in the race at the Shanghai International Circuit after persistent vibrations left him unable to continue.
Alonso initially enjoyed a strong launch and briefly climbed into the points early before dropping back as the problem worsened during the race.
“Yeah, I probably could not have finished the race anyway,” he said.
“The vibration level was very high today at one point.
“From lap 20 to 35 I was struggling a little bit to feel my hands and my feet, and we were one lap behind.
“We were last, and there was probably no point in carrying on.”
The Spaniard revealed the vibrations were more severe than anything he had experienced across the rest of the race weekend, prompting the team to investigate the cause.
“The vibrations seemed worse today than on any other day of the weekend, so we need to investigate why that was,” he said.
“It’s clear we need more time to fix everything, but we’ll go again in two weeks’ time in Japan.”
Onboard footage during the race showed Alonso briefly removing his hands from the steering wheel to try to ease the vibrations, which he later confirmed were also being felt through the pedals.
He explained the team had attempted to manage the problem by adjusting how the power unit was operated, although that approach had clear limitations during racing conditions.
“Some of the steps we took were achieved artificially,” Alonso added.
“I mean, just lowering the RPM of the engine and things like that, so everything vibrates less.
“But in the race, obviously you still need to go high in the RPM when you make an overtaking move, or when you have to recharge or something like that.
“So yeah, obviously over time it becomes more difficult, more demanding.”
Alonso’s retirement added to a miserable afternoon for Aston Martin, with teammate Lance Stroll also failing to reach the finish after suffering a suspected battery problem early in the race.
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