Honda and the disaster for Alonso: “We reached the limit of what we could do with the tools we have”

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll They once again experienced authentic torture in the F1 Azerbaijan GP. And no matter how well known the lack of power of the Honda engine is and that they already knew that the race of Baku would be very hard due to its long straights and the lack of top speed of the propeller, what happened in Baku It was very painful for the green team.

All weekend long, it looked like Fernando Alonso I lost a lot of time on the straight, especially on the straight of the last sector, the longest in the championship, 2.2 kilometers.

And in the race, things did not improve. Stroll He had to abandon on lap 9 due to a loss of water pressure, thus adding his fourth consecutive abandonment due to a reliability failure. And on lap 21, Alonso He notified the team that he would go to the pits to remove the car after several laps, alerting by radio that there was some problem with his engine.

The man from Oviedo warned by radio that he was losing first 7 tenths, and then 1″1, only in the last straight, in the middle of the fight with Bottas and after being overwhelmed without being able to do anything for Perez.

After that, Alonso told the press that the loss of speed on the straight was greater than what they had already expected. That is to say, he was aware of the enormous lack of power of the Honda engine, but he made it clear that He had even less speed due to some setback, something “anomalous” that caused him a loss of “1.5 seconds” in that final stretch.

And after that hard blow, the umpteenth of the year, Honda spoke about what happened this weekend in Baku, although without referring to any reliability setback in its engines.

“This weekend in Baku we learned a hard lesson. We knew that a circuit with such long straights would be a challenge for our current package. “We have tried to minimize the loss of time, but we have simply reached the limit of what we can do with the tools we currently have.”said Shintaro OriharaHonda track manager, in a team statement.

“It has been a weekend that has allowed us all to grow as a team. I want to thank the entire team for continuing to strive, no matter how difficult the road ahead of us may be,” added the Japanese engineer, with a last sentence that says it all about the enormous challenge that Honda faces.

For the Aston Martin project to improve, it absolutely needs strong and unhesitating progress from Honda by 2027, a reliable engine that at the same time has a power similar to the rest. Thus, it is impossible to fight, no matter how good a car Adrian Newey achieves next year. It needs to be accompanied by a good engine.