Yusuke Hasegawa felt that the McLaren-Honda F1 Team did not have the best of Mexican Grand Prix’s, with Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso finishing twelfth and thirteenth on Sunday.
The chief of the Honda Formula 1 project felt both drivers were compromised on the opening lap due to Carlos Sainz Jr’s robust defence on the run down to turn four, and after being stuck in traffic for much of the afternoon, neither could show their true speed or strengths.
Hasegawa revealed that both drivers were also affected by issues within their engines, Alonso with his Internal Combustion Engine and Button with his Energy Recovery System, and as a result they could not progress as much as they could have.
“Today’s Mexican Grand Prix was very harsh on our team,” said Hasegawa. “Fernando had a hairy start, being pushed out onto the grass, and as a result backed up Jenson who was directly behind him.
“Neither car was able to gain positions as they often do at the start, therefore. Furthermore, after the first pit-stops, we were constantly stuck in traffic, whereby we weren’t able to push into the points-scoring positions. I don’t think we were able to show any of the team’s strengths in the 71 laps today.
“We also had some issues with our power units, Fernando suffering from an anomaly in the ICE whereby we were forced to detune the output, and Jenson showed a temperature rise in the ERS whereby he wasn’t able to use the maximum performance mode at the end of the race. I am mostly disappointed as it feels like we have unfinished business and couldn’t challenge enough on the track.
“Now that the two long Americas back-to-back races are over, we’ll go to our respective factories and gather data to analyse, and look to pull the team together and forward for the upcoming Brazilian race.”
