Fernando Alonso revealed he was driving without the energy provided by his MGU-K for much of the Monaco Grand Prix.
He lost the extra power after suffering a problem with his Energy Recovery System early in the race. He was able to continue for a while but was forced to stop on lap 36, just shy of half-distance.
“I’m disappointed because the race was difficult from our side,” he told the official F1 channel after the race. “We had to manage many things.
“Since lap 15 we had an ERS problem so we didn’t have the electrical part of the engine, so it was 160 horsepower less. Here in Monaco, it’s not crucial, the power, so we kept sixth position alive for quite long.”
Daniel Ricciardo won the Monaco Grand Prix seven years ago despite losing power from the MGU-K in his Red Bull. However Alonso’s car did not last the distance.
“The engine stopped and it was not the end of the weekend that we wanted,” he said.
“But today it is not down to luck, it’s not that a wrong Safety Car or something came from the sky and hit our car. Today was something wrong on our engine that we need to investigate and try to improve for next time.”
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Alonso has suffered a luckless start to the season and remains yet to score a point after the first eight rounds. However he is drawing consolation from the team’s improved pace particularly since their upgrade in the last round at Imola.
“I’m competitive, it’s not that I feel slow or just have contact with the wall or with people in the first lap and because of my mistakes I’m not scoring any point,” he said. “I think I’m driving at a high level and I just need to wait and see what happens in the next races.”
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