Alonso returned to F1 after a two-year hiatus and joined Alpine last season. His return has been emphatic and he’s putting in strong performances even at the age of 41. He marked his return campaign with a podium finish in Qatar last season and aimed to compete in the front in 2022.
However, this season has not gone according to plan for Alonso. His performance behind the wheel has been incredible but his car, on the other hand, has not been kind to him. The A522’s reliability woes have forced Alonso to retire five times this season but that’s not his main concern. After his retirement in Mexico City, the Oviedo-born driver questioned why his teammate’s car does not stop.
Esteban Ocon is having a banger of a season himself, and unless he has a disastrous last two races, will finish ahead of Alonso. According to the latter, Ocon did not have to deal with reliability problems. Alonso on the other hand feels that he lost out on approximately 60 points because of durability issues.
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Fernando Alonso compares Alpine to McLaren-Honda
Alonso’s most difficult time in F1 was arguably his second stint with McLaren. The Woking-based outfit was using Honda engines at the time, and they became infamous for their poor reliability. The former Ferrari driver was often forced to take grid penalties of up to 52 places just to start a race!
However, there was more clarity on that situation as both he and his teammates suffered. This season, it seems as though Alpine’s troubles have been affecting Alonso only.
“The engine is not capable of finishing races,” he said. “It cannot be bad luck if you have to change six or seven engines, as we have, and we still can’t finish races. Car number 14 always has reliability issues. I’ve had five engines break this year.”
Alpine need to work hard over the winter
The main battle in the 2022 Championship has been in the midfield between McLaren and Alpine. The two teams have had strong and weak points throughout the season, but Alonso feels that they would have been miles ahead had he not lost out on so many points.
“I’ve lost 60 points this year,” Alonso continued. “And if we add another six, we have lost around 66 points.”
Even though he leaves the Enstone-based team at the end of 2022 to join Aston Martin, he hopes that the outfit that helped him two Championships works hard over the winter break to improve their reliability.
