Fernando Alonso says McLaren is paying a “big price” for its lack of winter running after a “painful” retirement from the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Spaniard enjoyed a strong start in changeable conditions, moving up to sixth place, before holding seventh for some time, having started from 13th on the grid.
Despite Honda’s power unit lacking straightline speed, Alonso was able to have some close battles on track before a driveshaft issue caused him to retire.
“We started from P13 in very tricky conditions, and after a few laps we were running in sixth position,” he explained. “That was a big surprise and was thanks to an amazing couple of laps.
“I was hoping those tricky conditions would continue as other cars were spinning off here and there, and, as we said yesterday, we maximised our opportunities as we were overtaking ‘for free’ at some moments.
“But then, when the track started drying out, we started to lose a little bit of ground even though we were still able to hold onto P7 for some time.
“Today we proved once more how hungry we are to get a good result, but unfortunately we’re still not strong enough to finish the races.
“The lack of winter testing means we’re paying a big price now, but hopefully we can improve quickly.
“It’s a shame that neither Stoffel [Vandoorne] or I could not get to the end today, and especially painful because I was in the points, but all we can do is learn our lessons and be a little bit better in Bahrain, even though the forecast is of course for no rain.”
Vandoorne failed to finish after retiring earlier in the race with a fuel problem.
