McLaren-Honda at the finish… but far from the points
McLaren had a complicated weekend in Belgium: Jenson Button once again had an engine problem, while Fernando Alonso was unable to keep up with the rest of the field. They finished 14th and 13th, respectively.
For Fernando Alonso, the best moment of the weekend happened at the start when he managed to gain six places: « The only fun moment was the start: it felt good to start 20th and be 14th at the end of the first lap.
It was then a long way of the cross until the finish: After that, our pace wasn’t quite good. But at least we have both cars at the finish. So let’s hope we can learn a bit for the next race.
This one doesn’t promise to be much better since Monza is also a demanding circuit for engines, the weak point of McLaren’s current package: « Monza will also be tough, but I’m sure we’ll have better races after that. »
The race was even more difficult for Jenson Button. He went so far as to say over the radio that it wasn’t a big deal if his start simulation to get to the starting grid wasn’t good, since there was no one behind him to run into him!
He was then affected by a new problem with the hybrid system of his engine: « From the very first laps, I had an issue with the ERS activation. It would turn on at different points throughout the laps but never fully functioned. It would stop after the Raidillon, for example, and I then had to rely solely on the combustion engine. We were losing a lot of power. So I was driving down the Kemmel straight and the one towards Blanchimont without the hybrid system. From there, I couldn’t do much. »
From our special correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps
