Why Alonso's iconic 'GP2 engine' outburst is now easier to understand

Fernando Alonso believes people can now understand why he criticised Honda so heavily following its latest Formula 1 engine woes.

Aston Martin has endured a nightmare start to its collaboration with Honda and technical problems plagued the team during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix last weekend.

The issues left Aston Martin with no spare batteries in Melbourne, and it is understood the situation has not improved much in time for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Alonso retired from last Sunday’s season opener after just 21 laps, while team-mate Lance Stroll completed 43 of the 58 laps but finished 15 laps down after a lengthy stop in the pits. Aston Martin is currently unable to complete a full race distance due to the risk of its drivers suffering permanent nerve damage from severe vibrations.

Alonso publicly ridiculed Honda when the Japanese manufacturer last returned to F1 in 2015 during his disastrous second stint with McLaren. At Honda's home race at Suzuka, Alonso famously branded its power unit a “GP2 engine”. 

“In a way, ten years later, some of the things that people thought about me ten years ago, when we had this situation, now they maybe changed opinion and maybe they think that I was right ten years ago,” the two-time world champion said ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.

“For me the biggest surprise was all these last few years thinking that ten years ago McLaren, Stoffel, Jenson, myself - always people seem to remember only Fernando, but I think Jenson, Stoffel and McLaren, we were saying the same - that project, the power unit, was not mature enough when we started, which everyone seems now to understand.

“But two or three years ago it seemed that I was crazy, ten years ago, criticising or something like that. It was, I think, a few frustrations on the radio, which, were there.

"As a double world champion and a competitive driver, I was not happy with the situation. Should I [have been] happy and clapping inside the car about the job? So now I think when everyone sees from the outside that situation and they see the current situation, I think they are a little bit more friendly with us and they understand more the problems.”

Alonso determined to help Honda recover

The 44-year-old Spaniard insists he is giving his all to improve the situation Aston Martin and Honda is facing.

“Now what can I do in the team is just work harder, try to help Honda as much as we can, allocating some of the resources that Aston Martin has into the engine, into the power unit, into the vibration problems, into the deployment issues,” he added.

“Obviously, we are now in a different world in Formula 1 with all the data available, all the GPS, the analysis that we can have from the other teams, and we can allocate some of those resources to make Honda focus on one thing, and we can help them in some other areas on the power unit.

"So, we are one team. It’s a bumpy start, but I hope it will not last for too long. But it will not be an immediate solution either.”

Alonso hopes Aston Martin can soon enjoy a ‘normal’ race weekend but warned it will take time for the Silverstone-based squad to be competitive.

“We still have too many issues and too many unknown issues that are coming day after day from nowhere, so it seems that we are not on top of the problems yet and that’s why it’s difficult to guess,” he explained.

“But we are pushing, we have very high professionals and talented people in the team, so I hope by a couple of Grands Prix we can have a normal weekend, at least in terms of doing laps and completing the sessions.

“Then to be competitive, I think that will take more time, to be honest, because once we fix the reliability then we will be behind in terms of power and things. So there are two steps and hopefully the first step will come soon.”