Fernando Alonso surely isn’t regretting his decision to skip Monaco to race in the Indianapolis 500, as the McLaren car suffers another mechanical failure on his out lap in the first session of the weekend. The incident warrants another power unit change.
Just three corners into his out lap, Alonso’s car came to a grinding halt. The car had snapped sideways and the engine began smoking heavily. Upon stopping, fluid was seen pouring from the car. Honda later revealed that an oil leak was the cause of the issue and has vowed to investigate the issue.
The issue required a power unit change, but there was no penalty for the change since the power unit that suffered the failure today had previously been used in Australia, China and practice in Bahrain.
However, the team are already quite close to using their allotted power unit components for the year. The team is close to using their final MGU-K and MGU-H.
A frustrated Alonso left the circuit shortly after the incident, returning to his hotel to play a game of tennis with his trainer. He returned for the second free practice session, completing the least amount of laps (only 21) and setting the slowest lap time. Alonso was nearly 0.5 seconds off of the Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein ahead and nearly 3.3 seconds off of the fastest lap.
The session was not without a classic Alonso radio rant insulting the poor performance of the Honda engine, showing his clear frustration with the manufacturer. With Alonso’s contract set to expire at the end of the season, he has admitted that if McLaren doesn’t produce a competitive car by the fall, a team change may be in the cards.
