Fernando Alonso labelled the French Grand Prix as “by far McLaren’s worst performance” of the 2018 season, as he again failed to reach the chequered flag.
Alonso, having dropped out in Q1, spent much of the race towards the back of the field, his slim points prospects wrecked when he spun through Turn 3 while running side-by-side with Sebastian Vettel at the restart.
Alonso fitted fresh tyres in an attempt to claim the fastest lap late on but suffered a suspension failure and pulled into the pits.
It marked the third successive retirement for Alonso, while team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne also failed to add to McLaren’s tally, classifying 12th.
“This was by far the worst performance of the year,” said Alonso. “So, I really hope it is a one off and not the normality.
“We are two drivers doing the best job in the world and we were not competitive today or this weekend.
“As I said yesterday, we are very bad but we are seventh [sic] in the world championship. So something good maybe is happening.”
Alonso also expressed frustration at the first lap antics, believing several rivals gained an advantage by utilising some of Paul Ricard’s extensive run-off areas.
“It was all the race on the back foot, and from the start we had to avoid a lot of accidents in front of us,” he said.
“People seemed to shortcut the circuit and nothing happened. We stay on the circuit and we came last just doing that.
“But it was not our race, and after we had a suspension problem at the end.
“We could not even see the chequered flag, so a not very competitive weekend for us.
“But in five days we have another opportunity to forget this, and I really hope that Austria and especially Silverstone will be better circuits for us.”
