Not good news in the Alpine house. The French team is back from a good start to the season, with Ocon managing to finish in the points in both races held.
More problems instead for Fernando Alonso. In fact, the Spaniard had to raise the white flag in Jeddah, after the good sports fight he had with his teammate for sixth position.
Reliability gives way
The reason for the stop? Engine again. A difficulty that persists in the French team, given that in any case Alonso, before the Saudi Arabian GP, had already changed the Power Unit, following the analysis carried out by the team which in Bahrain had highlighted a suspected sealing problem with the engine on the car of Spanish.
Laurent Rossi: "The engine is lost for us"
The situation is therefore not the best, given that at the end of the Jeddah GP, new difficulties arose which compromised the stability of the engine, as reported by Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi: “It's not the engine but the water pump. This led to a cooling failure and subsequently a cascade of events. Fernando was able to continue driving and the engine was running, but obviously in less than ideal conditions. We preferred to stop it. The water pump eventually disintegrated and fell into the engine. If we wanted to fix it, we would have had to break the seal. So the engine is lost to us".
Now you risk
So yet another engine change is expected for Fernando Alonso. The third out of three Grands Prix held. If the Alpine engineers were therefore to fit a new engine in Australia, the penalty for Fernando will be triggered at the next change. In fact, we recall that the regulation states that a team can use three engines throughout the season, without incurring penalties. Now Alpine risks. A good start in terms of standings, but as far as reliability is concerned, work still needs to be done.
SOURCE: Formula News Live
