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Fernando Alonso bemoaned his ongoing reliability issues after retiring from the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix.
The Spaniard stopped on Lap 63 of 71, pulling his Alpine off the road at the opening corner.
He’d been running seventh earlier in the race before power unit issues saw his pace slow, falling to ninth before eventually retiring.
“20 laps to the end, I lose one cylinder,” Alonso said.
‘I was running with five cylinders, 20 percent less power.
“I was 20 seconds in front of the McLarens, and my team-mate, so I think the race until that point was exceptional.
“I think Austin, and here I raced my best two races in terms of pace.”
Alonso has not been shy in voicing his criticism of Alpine’s reliability woes throughout the course of the 2022 season.
In Melbourne, a hydraulic issue in Qualifying cost him a shot at pole position, while there have been a number of other issues during the year.
“I think I lost 60 points this year, so we got another six, so it’s around 66,” Alonso noted.
“And obviously all the others, they benefit, so everyone scores two more [points] than what they should.
“But it’s just amazing that only one of two cars is retiring every race and it’s always car 14.
“[I] blew up five engines I think this year; the problem in Australia and the Qualifying in Austria, I didn’t even start the race because it was a blackout.
“So I think it’s 19 races, more or less 50 percent of the races we didn’t score the points we deserved, but nothing we can do.”
The lack of reliability for Alonso is a point acknowledged by team boss Otmar Szafnauer, though he suggests it’s nothing more than coincidental.
“I remember when I was at Honda,” he began.
“I can’t remember how many engine failures Takuma Sato had, like 13 in a year and Jenson [Button] had none. Zero.
“And the question always came up; we couldn’t find anything to show that one side or the other [was better prepared].
“At that point, the questions were always ‘does Takuma drive it so much differently than Jenson that it always happens on his side?’
“I think it was just the luck of the draw, so I think it’s just the luck of the draw [for Alonso].”
Szafnauer revealed that Esteban Ocon was also nursing issues in Mexico, with a water leak detected in his car.
“Esteban, the latter half of the race, started losing water pressure, so he had to lift and coast,” the Alpine Team Principal explained.
“If you guys remember from your days of chemistry, PV=nRT.
“Pressure and temperature are related, so when you’re starting to lose pressure, you can bring the temperature down and stabilise the pressure.
“For us to bring the temperature down in the water system meant lifting and coasting.”
Ocon ended the race eighth, sandwiched between the two McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris.
With Alonso failing to score, it meant Alpine scored just four points towards the constructors’ championship.
Its advantage to McLaren for fourth in that competition now stands at just seven points with two races remaining.
