It was a hugely disappointing afternoon for the whole McLaren-Honda team at the Sochi Autodrom on Sunday when their star driver Fernando Alonso failed to start the Russian Grand Prix.
Fernando suffered an ERS software fault on the parade lap, and, despite attempting to restart it during the lap, he was unable to make it back to the pits and was left stranded on the circuit.
It was a devastating sight to see the former champion walking despondently back to the garage after leaving his stricken car on the track with commentators debating over how much longer one of the top three drivers on the grid will continue in such a frustrating situation.
“It's tough, it's frustrating – every weekend is the same,” he said. “My power unit didn't have the usual power during the formation lap, so my engineer told me to change some settings on the steering wheel. Unfortunately, that didn't work and towards the end of the lap the engine shut down. My race was over before it started.”
“Not being able to take part in the race today and not being able to finish any race so far this season is extremely tough. But Formula1 is my life, so hopefully we can improve the situation soon."
Fernando will go and have his first test in Indycar on Wednesday, so hopefully that will help to take his mind off his Formula One woes, if only for a short time.
