Formula One: Fernando Alonso takes a shot at Honda

Two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso, who drives a Renault-powered car for McLaren, took a shot at Honda, the team’s previous engine manufacturer.

In each of the last three seasons, the McLaren Formula One team have used Honda engines, and they have been the only team to do so. In each of those three seasons, they have struggled mightily. Having driven for the team in each of those three seasons, two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso had to deal with a lot of these struggles.

Alonso, 36, finished just 36 of his 58 races driving for McLaren in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons, and he finished no higher than 5th place in a single race in any of those three seasons. His three 5th place finishes during that time came in the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix, the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix and the 2016 United States Grand Prix.

During these three seasons, Alonso never finished higher than 10th place in the drivers standings. He finished in 17th in the 2015 season, 10th in the 2016 season and 15th in the 2017 season.

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In the team’s three seasons using Honda engines, their results in the constructors standings were 9th place in the 2015 season, 6th in the 2016 season and 9th again in the 2017 season.

During that time, none of the team’s drivers finished a race in a position higher than 5th place, and none of them finished higher than 10th in the drivers standings. Alonso accounted for both of those top results for the team in this three-year span.

However, this season, Scuderia Toro Rosso are set to use Honda engines, and McLaren are set to switch to Renault engines as a result of this since only two other teams are set to use Renault engines. With the limit being three teams per engine manufacturer, McLaren’s switch works out perfectly.

As a result of this switch, Alonso took a shot at Honda after three consecutive unsuccessful seasons running the Japanese engines in his McLaren car. Here is what Alonso had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.

"“What I don’t have is any reason to believe we are not going to be competitive. McLaren is, if not the best, one of the best teams in this sport — not lately, but in history. Therefore, seeing the chassis we had last year, I see no reason why we wouldn’t be competitive this year. We have an engine that is not an experiment. It’s a new engine that we have to open up and see what we find out. It’s an evolution from last year and has already won races.“Plus, there are two other teams with the same engine, so if we have an issue, there are many people trying to solve and many tests that each team can make to try to find a solution that is positive for everyone. So when I put it all in the mix, I see no reason why things would go badly.”“Even this morning when we had an issue with the car and we lost two hours but there were other guys with our engine running so any information or driveability issues or deployment issues they will face the same and find a solution so maybe when you go back to the car you have the solution already thanks to them so it is a very good position to be in and helpful.”"

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Will Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s other driver Stoffel Vandoorne end up being more competitive this season than they were last season given the fact that the team are no longer running Honda engines and are instead set to run Renault engines? The season is set to get underway in just a few weeks on Sunday, March 25th with the Australian Grand Prix, which is set to be broadcast live on that date starting at 1:10 am ET on ESPN2.

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