Fernando Alonso urges reliability is still his concern

Despite McLaren’s first points finish in Monaco, things weren’t one hundred percentage fine in the McLaren garage after Fernando Alonso experienced his second consecutive retirement. While a brake issue hampered his race in Spain, it was an overheating issue in his Honda Power Unit, that ruined what would have been a ninth place finish in Monaco. Alonso said his last two races have been a disappointment and reiterated the need to make the car more reliable ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

“On my side of the garage, it’s disappointing to have had two technical issues in a row, but as usual we’re working extremely hard to understand these problems,” he said. “Reliability is always the most important factor, so before performance we must focus on making sure we start the weekend positively and maximise the practice sessions to get our car properly set up for this track. “The circuit itself is tricky – that’s what makes it so special – and always provides great racing. It’s obviously very different from Monaco because it’s so high-speed, but, like Monaco, there are lots of technical corners that mean you need to focus on having good balance and downforce in the car, especially under braking.

“Despite the reliability issues I’ve had in the last two races, the car has felt good, so our priority is to have a trouble-free weekend and get the maximum performance out of our package.”

Despite Alonso’s issues, the McLaren Hondo team is in a positive mood. Honda boss Yasuhisa Arai is confident the team is going in the right direction.

“At Monaco, I was very happy that McLaren-Honda scored its first championship points,” Arai said. “This was down to the continuous hard work of the team. Of course, it was unfortunate Fernando retired as we were hoping to get both cars home in the points, but we gain more confidence as the season goes on. Our power unit is progressing in the right direction, and we’ve taken another step upwards as a team.”