Alpine suspect similar power unit problem put both drivers out of Singapore GP

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In the round-up: Alpine believe a similar problem with their Renault power units put both its drivers out if yesterday’s Singapore Grand Prix.

In brief

Power unit problem behind Alpine retirements

Fernando Alonso retired from sixth place on lap 21. Team mate Esteban Ocon dropped out of the race just six laps later.

Alpine team principal Szafnauer suspects the same problem took both drivers out. “Unfortunately we had a double retirement which is a pity as we’ve been very competitive all weekend,” he said.

“It looks like we suffered a similar power unit issue on both cars, which we will investigate in detail. It’s important that we identify the root cause of what happened and put preventative measures in place to avoid a repeat.”

Mercedes rue “race to forget” in Singapore

The Singapore Grand Prix went “from bad to worse” for Mercedes, says the team’s head of trackside operations Andrew Shovlin. While Lewis Hamilton started third but fell to ninth after crashing, George Russell was unable to fight his way into the points after starting from the pit lane.

Little went right for Mercedes on Sunday
Shovlin said Hamilton’s off-track moment on the first lap compromised his tyre performance. “Lewis dropped a bit of ground to Sainz on the start and then got pushed wide and he lost all tyre temp going through the water,” he explained. “That meant the opening laps were tricky.”

Hamilton had to pit with front wing damage after his crash. Shovlin said the timing of that pit stop “was unfortunate as we lost time with the change but then lost further positions as the Safety Car allowed others to pit without losing much time.”

The team believe Russell was on course to reach the top 10 until he tangled with Mick Schumacher. “It looked like we would have at least got back into the points as he was pulling the cars ahead by many seconds a lap,” said Shovlin.

“Unfortunately, that hope was short-lived when he had contact with Mick that caused a puncture. Overall, a race to forget, we’re going to use the next few days to regroup and prepare for Suzuka where hopefully we will put in a better all-round performance.”

Bottas defends soft tyre gamble

After missing out on a points finish in Singapore, Valtteri Bottas said his team did the right thing by risking a change to soft tyres at the end of the race when their rivals opted for mediums.

“Towards the end, definitely it started to drop [off],” he said. “But I think it was good to try in case it gave an advantage in the warm-up or something.

“But it didn’t seem to make a huge difference and it definitely dropped towards the end. I think at that point we needed something to happen to get some points, so at least we tried.”

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Comment of the day

Instead of complaining about the FIA brandishing the black-and-orange flag, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner should have a word with Kevin Magnussen about his first-lap incidents, says @Sjaakfoo:

You can debate whether it’s needed to hand out flags for wing damage, but I think the bigger issue here is that Steiner needs to sit his driver down and ask him to stop damaging his front wings all the time so the flags won’t be an issue regardless.
@Sjaakfoo

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Iceshiel, Strferrari4Ever, Elaine Aka Mclarensgirl1 and Kaiie!

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Alpine suspect similar power unit problem put both drivers out of Singapore GP”

  1. An anonymous account using material ripped off from somewhere else getting huge attention by mocking a volunteer doing real work, succeeding only in betraying their own ignorance of the job.

    and now getting more attention?

    1. Boomer moment. Generational disconnect.

      1. Like your disconnect to the rule book last year?

        (Sorry.. don’t have a point but had to reply that username)

        1. You must be a new fan

      2. You don’t know what a boomer is do you?

    2. @KeithCollantine,
      Why all the attention for a Tweep who is merely making an early entry for a potential Caption Competition?

      And you might want to come down of your high horse. Lately this site is mimicking Social Media by favouring simple clyck bayt articles, headlines, and write-ups over the good journalistic articles of yesteryear.

  2. So not attending the Japanese GP has been Toto’s original intention. I wonder why Suzuka, specifically.

    COTD couldn’t be more spot-on.

    1. Probably something to do with red bull\honda.

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