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Honda have revealed that High fuel consumption was the reason why Fernando Alonso was unable to score points at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Despite qualifying in the top 10, the Spaniard finished eleventh after being forced to save fuel for most of the race around the thirsty Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
"We knew we were around tenth, ninth or eleventh so it is not the biggest surprise that we can finish eleventh,” said Honda's head of F1 Yusuke Hasegawa. "But because fuel consumption is very tough in this circuit Fernando needed to save fuel almost for the whole race. That’s cost us very much, I think."
"It is obviously disappointing. We assumed that in a power circuit like this we would struggle, we knew that without any chaotic situation like the weather then we understood it would be difficult to get a point," he continued. "The race proves that, so it was very disappointing."
Alonso's McLaren Honda team mate was the first retirement of the race after suffering apparent engine failure on lap nine. However, after investigation, it is thought the problem was in fact gearbox related after no damage to the power unit was found.
"We are not sure. From the data point of view the engine looks okay," said Hasegawa. "The engine was still running and Jenson stopped the engine by himself. The oil pressure was still alive, so we don’t know the cause. It was some mechanical issue I think but we don’t know."
Gilles Villeneuve - 12 June 2016
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (3)
Login to replyVet5
Posts: 225
Haven't they always suffered this problem? Fuel is the Achilles heel to Honda like the dirty air is to Mercedes. Obviously the problem is worse on circuits like Canada where the consumption rate is high anyway, but surely they should be looking into this. Even Alonso asking to retire early was horrible to hear!
mclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
Fairly obvious by now their so called power improvements are coming at the cost of higher fuel consumption. While there is a top limit on the fuel flow rate to the feeder, most teams have become more efficient at extracting power form less fuel but honda is just at the level where Ferrari and Renault have been at the start of 2015.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
So the fuel consumption is still a problem after the new turbo and better electric oompf.. Thats pretty bad. It'll be hard for them to do any serious racing if they need to coast around all the time. But its good to hear that Button didnt go out with a PU-failure.