Fernando Alonso admitted to feeling anonymous during the Japanese Grand Prix after the McLaren-Honda driver struggled to sixteenth on race day on Sunday.
The Spaniard had started fifteenth but was unable to make progress in the race, ultimately losing a position on his starting position, and revealed that the team were struggling in the high speed corners at Suzuka, a track that has many of those types of turn.
Alonso is hopeful that the race in Japan was just a blip after stronger outings in the last two races in Singapore and Malaysia, but admitted he was disappointed to under-perform at the home event of engine suppliers Honda.
“Our race today reflected the whole weekend: it was just anonymous,” said Alonso. “To finish 16th and 18th today is a rather nasty surprise, especially after finishing seventh in Singapore, and seventh and ninth in Malaysia, just last weekend.
“I hope this was an exceptional and unique event, and that we’ll return to business as usual at the next race, in Austin. It was clear that the layout of the track didn’t suit our package – we lacked downforce through the faster corners.
“I know our car is in fact much more competitive than we were able to show today, and I’m obviously disappointed about putting on such a poor show at Honda’s home race. But we’ll head back home, analyse what happened, and bounce back from this disappointment.”
