Fernando Alonso‘s faith in Honda seems to be beyond repair. He’s given them deadlines, threatened to leave the McLaren team, and spoken out about his discontent with his car’s engine time and time again. Honda has tried to revise its engines to bring them up to Alonso’s standards, but to no avail. A new “spec 3” upgrade was tested in Baku, and both Alonso and his McLaren teammate Stoffel Vandoorne will run the engine in Austria; however, the Spaniard star isn’t expecting much.
Alonso was interviewed at an FIA event recently by EFE News, and when asked what he thought about Honda’s latest efforts, he said “I think the engine is good for the team to do a press release, but it is practically the same. Any upgrade is welcome, but there is no change with the new engine. We already tried it in Baku practice, but we were last and second to last,” Autoweek reports
Obviously, those aren’t encouraging words from the former world champion. Even more disconcerting was Alonso’s response when he was asked what he expected out of the “spec 3” revision — he simply said “nothing”.
If Honda can’t pull things together by October, it’s unlikely that ‘Nando will be staying with McLaren. Talks of him moving to Mercedes have been shot down, but a potential shift to Ferrari may be possible if the Maranello team decides not to re-sign either Raikkonen or Vettel. In fact, ex-F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone encouraged that move, saying Ferrari should consider Alonso because he is “one of the best F1 drivers of all time.”