Fernando Alonso fell victim to another Honda engine failure during the Belgian Grand Prix that saw him retire on lap 26; prior to this, he had made an excellent start to pass three cars from tenth, but ultimately he could not compete with the faster cars around him and fell out of the points.
He complained over the radio of an "embarrassing" lack of power, but when speaking to the media was asked about the real reason behind his retirement - a question seemingly suggestive of a loss of motivation. In response, the Spaniard said: "No, there was a problem, an engine issue. It was difficult, the points were impossible today so we'll see what we can do next week."
The line of questioning soon moved to Alonso's still-undecided racing future. When he was then asked whether McLaren would have to seek a different engine partner to retain him in 2018, he seemed to avoid giving a direct answer.
"I think we'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks," he added. "I'm happy with the team, I think we are in a tough season but McLaren is one of the best teams in the world and I'll be happy to keep working with them. But we need to see how things evolve in the next couple of weeks."
Mason Hawker
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Login to replycalle.itw
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He didnt really evade it though, did he? The question was whether it'd take a different supplier for him to stay with McLaren, and he basically said "maybe, but lets see how things turns out first". Hardly a direct answer, but he did answer the question.
I wonder what went wrong though. I doubted they would score points today anyway, but even then, it was a miserable day for them.