12-06-2018, 15:30
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/44434168
Were McLaren slowest of all in Canada?
In qualifying there's a case for saying they had the slowest car in Canada.
They qualified 14th and 15th, but the only team not to have a car qualify in front of them were Williams. And if you consider that Alonso, one of the greats, could well be more than 0.6 seconds quicker around a lap than Lance Stroll, who made a mistake and didn't improve on his last run, and rookie Sergey Sirotkin, then it's certainly valid to argue that is what the McLaren was.
Not only that, but they actually qualified higher up last year with the Honda power unit they complained so vocally about. Alonso was 12th on the grid in 2017.
This is a case of humble pie for McLaren, but it's not just the egos of everyone in the team that will be hurting. There has been a financial cost as well.
The switch to Renault engines cost not far off $100m (£75m), taking into account the money Honda were paying into McLaren, including sponsorship income and half the drivers' salaries, and the cost of paying for the Renault engines.
Because of that huge cost, there have been constant promises and a desperation to justify their switch this season.
After the opening round in Melbourne, where Alonso drove to a fantastic fifth place (with a dose of luck from the safety car and cars dropping out ahead), he said "now we can fight" on the team radio. On the surface, it seemed that the McLaren-Renault partnership had brought them closer to the action.
But when rookie Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso, using the Honda engine which McLaren ditched, finished fourth at the very next race in Bahrain, question marks were raised. Indeed, Gasly mocked McLaren and Alonso by repeating the exact same words on the team radio after the race.
Were McLaren slowest of all in Canada?
In qualifying there's a case for saying they had the slowest car in Canada.
They qualified 14th and 15th, but the only team not to have a car qualify in front of them were Williams. And if you consider that Alonso, one of the greats, could well be more than 0.6 seconds quicker around a lap than Lance Stroll, who made a mistake and didn't improve on his last run, and rookie Sergey Sirotkin, then it's certainly valid to argue that is what the McLaren was.
Not only that, but they actually qualified higher up last year with the Honda power unit they complained so vocally about. Alonso was 12th on the grid in 2017.
This is a case of humble pie for McLaren, but it's not just the egos of everyone in the team that will be hurting. There has been a financial cost as well.
The switch to Renault engines cost not far off $100m (£75m), taking into account the money Honda were paying into McLaren, including sponsorship income and half the drivers' salaries, and the cost of paying for the Renault engines.
Because of that huge cost, there have been constant promises and a desperation to justify their switch this season.
After the opening round in Melbourne, where Alonso drove to a fantastic fifth place (with a dose of luck from the safety car and cars dropping out ahead), he said "now we can fight" on the team radio. On the surface, it seemed that the McLaren-Renault partnership had brought them closer to the action.
But when rookie Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso, using the Honda engine which McLaren ditched, finished fourth at the very next race in Bahrain, question marks were raised. Indeed, Gasly mocked McLaren and Alonso by repeating the exact same words on the team radio after the race.
Fernando es de otro planeta