The Alpine team has managed to create a fast but not strong enough car for this season. Esteban Ocon managed to finish in the first two stages, finishing seventh and sixth, while Alonso finished ninth in Bahrain, while Saudi Arabia withdrew.
It is known that the water pump was at fault, but as it is built into the engine and caused problems with overheating, it was necessary to replace the engine. For safety reasons, Alonso also received a new engine before the previous stage.
“The culprit was not the engine itself, but the water pump,” explains Loren Rosi, chief executive of Alpine. “This led to cooling problems and a series of problems. The engine didn’t cool down enough, the oil got hot and there were other problems. Fernando could have continued to run because the engine was running, but the conditions were nowhere near perfect. We decided to quit. The problem is that The water pump is built into the engine, so we’ve lost one engine. it does what we expect it to do. “
Alpine is currently in fourth place in the Constructors’ Cup, but Alonso has to accept that at some point he will definitely be penalized for the starting places. You can do this with more than one stage, but not for the rest of the season.
Resources used:
Motorsport.com: F1 News, MotoGP, NASCAR,…
