Fernando Alonso says the situation at McLaren is worse than it was in 2016, after the Spaniard was unable to take part in the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Alonso stopped during the formation lap with a suspected energy recovery system (ERS) issue, meaning he failed to take the start of the race for the first time since the 2005 Indianapolis GP.
When asked how frustrated he was by the failure, he replied: "The same as every weekend. Nothing really new today.
"It's tough. Every weekend is the same. I'm not the boss of the team, so I just come and drive as fast as I can and then go back home."
When asked if the situation at McLaren is worse than it was last year, when Honda appeared to be making progress with its power unit, he added: "Yeah, definitely worse. We cannot even participate, like today. Something is not going right, but there is nothing I can do, probably.
"I try to help the team as much as I can, but it's frustrating. We need to improve the situation soon.
"You expect more or less these problems. We had problems in the winter and during the first races, like we do now. Unless we change fundamental things in the team we can continue to expect this."
