At only the third race of the season in Australia, Fernando Alonso will be having to take a third engine. This means that grid penalties for the Spaniard will be a certainty in the not so distant future.
In Saudi Arabia Alonso’s engine failed on lap 36 after what was looking like a fairly decent performance from him against his teammate earlier in the race.
Alpine have worked out the issue and it wasn’t necessarily due to the engine but down to the water pump attached to it.
“It’s not the engine but the water pump,”
“This led to a cooling defect and subsequently a cascade of events – the engine cooled less, the oil heated up, etc, creating more worries.
“Fernando was able to continue driving and the engine was working but obviously in less than ideal conditions. We preferred to stop him. The water pump had failed.
“The problem is this accessory (water pump) is integrated into the engine. The water pump ended up disintegrating and falling into the engine.
“If we had wanted to repair it, we would have had to break the seal. So the engine is lost to us. Even if its physical integrity is not directly affected, for us it is one engine less.”
“I hope we will have corrected it for Melbourne, It’s a youthful problem with the new components that are working for the first time and we haven’t had the opportunity to validate yet, as is the case for all the teams.
“The advantage is it is neither structural nor intrinsic. The engine itself, its design, or the architectural choices made, are not to be questioned because the engine does what is expected of it.”
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi speaking to Auto Hebdo
Since 2018 Formula 1 has restricted power unit components to 3 per season without incurring penalties. Should a driver require more than the alloted units per season, grid penalties are introduced as a punishment. This has been dependant on how many components have needed the change, whether a full engine change or simply the PU, MGU-K or the MGU-H. The penalty is 5 grid places per component.
Teams have been known to use this strategically throughout the season at tracks that will lessen the impact of such a penalty. Even if its to just add the component into the pool at a circuit where overtaking is easier.
For the first time in 3 years, the F1 circus will be rolling into Melbourne Australia for a race around Albert Park. Fernando and the team will be looking to improve their reliability moving forward.