It was yet another disappointing end to a disappointing weekend for the McLaren-Honda team, with Fernando Alonso retiring the car near the end of the race, while Stoffel Vandoorne failed to even start his car. It has been two full years since the team partnered with Honda and the results are still not there.
Stoffel Vandoorne’s day finished before it had even started, with the team discovering water pressure issue on his Honda power unit just before he left the garage. In an effort to prevent the waste of yet another power unit, the team opted not to run the car in the race.
“It’s frustrating when you do all the preparation work, put in so much effort, we drivers train a lot to keep fit to be able to go racing, and then not being able to start is a shame,” explained Vandoorne. “It’s been an extremely difficult weekend for me, having two failures on Friday in FP1 and FP2, and now in the race: it’s obviously very disappointing. But I’ll keep my head down, I’ll work hard with the team, and I’m sure there will be some improvements at some point. When they will be, it’s difficult to say, but I’m confident that they’ll come. We’ve lost quite a bit of mileage so it’s definitely not an ideal situation, and we need to make a good step forward soon. Hopefully we can show that at some point in the next few races.”
Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda’s head of the Formula One project and executive chief engineer, believes that the water pressure issue is the same issue that the team experienced during both sessions on Friday. The issue is under investigation by the engine manufacturer and the company hopes to improve the power unit reliability and performance during the two days of upcoming testing at the circuit.
On the other side of the McLaren garage, Alonso was his usual vocal self in the car, complaining about the lack of power in his car compared to his competitors’. At one point he said that he had never driven a car in his career with less power. With only a few laps remaining in the race, Alonso’s car was retired due to an undisclosed issue.
“It’s frustrating,” said a less than happy Fernando Alonso. “When the red lights go off you’re motivated and you start fighting, but you’re so behind on the straights that there’s no way you can defend your position. You fight in a fair way with everyone, but you don’t enjoy the battle.”
Alonso was not the only one to express frustration about the weekend’s performance. “Well, what can I say? Fernando failed to finish, and Stoffel failed even to start. So today was a bad day for McLaren-Honda: there’s no point pretending otherwise,” said Eric Boullier, the McLaren racing director. “We’re disappointed to have put up such a disappointing performance for our Bahraini hosts, whose home Grand Prix was yet again both superbly organised and excitingly dramatic. The Bahrain International Circuit has now hosted 13 Grands Prix, and over that time it’s become one of the Formula 1 circus’s favourite venues.”
Weekend Summary: 2017 Bahrain GP
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