Spaniard writes off 2015 campaign before halfway stage
Wednesday 17 June 2015 12:20, UK
Fernando Alonso has given up on the 2015 season and called on his McLaren team to turn their focus towards next season.
Alonso has yet to score a point since his transfer from Ferrari and has retired from the last three races as the dismal start to McLaren’s reunion with Honda shows no sign of abating. The current campaign hasn’t even reached the halfway stage but, bereft of either reliability or competitive pace, Alonso already believes 2015 is a lost cause.
“With the position we are in and the performance we have, I think concentrating on next year is the clever option for us now," the former world champion told Autosport.
"I don't have any problem starting every single race from the pit lane if we keep improving the car. That's the main priority now, to concentrate on next year's performance, so let's see what the team can offer."
Despite a litany of frustrations and embarrassments on track, both Alonso and team-mate Jenson Button have maintained a remarkable level of stoicism in public this year, with the Spaniard’s optimistic outlook only briefly cracking in Montreal two weeks ago when he complained the team “looked amateur”.
While the party line remains that McLaren’s struggles were an inevitability this year, with Honda playing catch-up after missing the first season of F1’s new turbo era, it has been noticeable in recent weeks that the team have begun to scale back their own expectations for the remainder of 2015.
Speaking in the midst of McLaren’s calamitous start to winter testing, an optimistic Button told reporters that although McLaren wouldn’t “have a race-winning car at the first race, we might have one at the last race". However, after a excoriating Canadian GP weekend, in which he was forced to sit out qualifying before failing to reach the chequered flag, Button conceded: “We won’t get a podium this year.”
More pain is expected this weekend. The picturesque setting of the Austrian GP high in the hills of Spielberg will provide a vivid contrast to the cityscape of Montreal two weeks ago, but the power-centric circuits themselves are similar in characters – which is bad news for a McLaren package in which the underpowered Honda engine remains the principal weakness. Not even the availability of a shortened nose, which passed the mandatory crash test last week, is likely to provide adequate compensation.
“Performance-wise, we expect the Austrian Grand Prix to be another tricky weekend, as it features heavy braking from high speeds and similar stop-start characteristics to Montreal,” said team boss Eric Boullier.
“Reliability has been a key issue during our development push, particularly on Fernando’s car. It’s a crucial element of a race weekend that we need to improve in order to continue making progress.”
