The Alpine F1 Team, which challenged the final race of the 17th round of F1 Singapore GP, suffered the first W retirement of the season and ended up with no points in two consecutive races, resulting in McLaren losing 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Fernando Alonso, who celebrated his 350th start in F1, had a splendid defense once morest Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and kept 6th place, but retired on the 21st lap. His teammate Esteban Ocon also followed on lap 27.
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal, said regarding the cause of the retirement, “It seems that both cars had the same power unit problem, and we will investigate in detail from now on. We will identify the root cause and take measures to prevent recurrence. It’s important,” he explained.
“It’s a shame to double-retire today at the Singapore Grand Prix, following being very competitive all weekend.”
“In terms of the progress of the race, the conditions were challenging as the track surface turned dry.
“Sometimes things like this happen in racing. There’s a lot of disappointment in the team, but next weekend we have the race in Japan and we have an opportunity to make up for it.”
“As a team, we take this situation very seriously. Now we are looking forward to returning to Suzuka for the first time in a while and racing at a great circuit.”
This is the third time this year that Alonso has been forced to retire. The points lost due to numerous misfortunes such as technical troubles and safety cars are immeasurable.
After the race, Alonso posted on his Instagram story: “Performance-wise this has been my best season yet it hurts to think that I’ve lost more than 60 points to reliability issues so far.”
Alpine: F1 Singapore GP Final
Fernando AlonsoFinal: Retired / Grid: 5th
It’s a pity that I have to retire early. We lost a lot of championship points because of it.
On the other hand, I am positive that our performance this weekend was something to be proud of. We were fighting for the fifth and sixth positions on Saturday and today’s race was similar.
The race was held in difficult conditions. It was hard to find a dry line that appeared on the track.
We have another race next weekend, so let’s jump right in and shift our focus to Japan, where we’ll be aiming for points once more.
Esteban OconFinal: Retired / Grid: 17th
It was a frustrating day for the team.
On my side, the race ended early due to a problem with the power unit. The team is investigating the exact cause of the malfunction.
Of course it’s very disappointing to leave Singapore with a double retirement, but on a positive note all weekend the car performed well and the pace was good.
Next week is my favorite race at Suzuka. I want to change my mind and come back stronger in Japan.
6 cars were forced to retire in a turbulent2022 F1 round 17 Singapore GP final racewas won by Sergio Perez (Red Bull). Charles Leclerc finished second, followed by Carlos Sainz and Ferrari on the podium in third.
The next round, the Japan GP, which will be staged at the Suzuka Circuit, will kick off with free practice 1 on Friday, October 7th.