McLaren collapses at Honda, Alonso: "We were anonymous"

A terrible McLaren, almost worse than the one seen last year at Suzuka. Precisely in the home of the Honda engine engineer, the Anglo-Japanese team ran into enormous difficulty, complaining of deficiencies not only from the point of view of the Power Unit, but also from that of the chassis, with the MP4-31 which rarely had such difficulty in the curves fast. Alonso fought like his usual lion, as did Button, but the two world champions were able to do little to cope with the terrible state of form of the car.

Fernando Alonso (16th): “Our race all reflected what our weekend was like, simply anonymous. Finishing sixteenth and eighteenth was almost a surprise, considering our good performances in Singapore and Malaysia. Let's hope that this race remains an exceptional event and that we can get back to fighting later in Austin. Suzuka's design didn't help us, we never had aerodynamic grip. I'm disappointed to have delivered such a bad race at Honda's home circuit. But we will recover from this disappointment as soon as possible."

Jenson Button (18th)"I had a bad start and struggled a lot in the first laps, given that I was on hard tires while the others had softer compounds. Then I managed to get a bit of rhythm and I was also involved in some fun duels, but overall it was a truly forgettable weekend. It's a shame that Suzuka is such a difficult track for us, as it's Honda's home GP. We weren't competitive here, we hope to make up for it in Austin."

AR