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Fernando Alonso has 'total' faith in Renault engine

Published on 13 Feb 2018 11:06
8
By: Rob Veenstra

Fernando Alonso says he has "total" confidence that he will win in 2018. After three bad years with Honda power, McLaren is now switching to customer Renault engines. Spaniard Alonso won his titles with works Renault power over a decade ago, and so he said the French marque will be able to fix its reliability problems of late 2017.

"Total. Total," he said again when asked by Spain's AS newspaper how much confidence he has. "I believe there are three engine manufacturers now at a very high level, and of the three, Mercedes has dominated in this era. But if you have to trust someone, you trust Renault, who in the last ten or 12 years has won six or seven times," Alonso added. "Renault is an engine of guarantees and always has been," he said.

Alonso will uniquely split his time between F1 and the world endurance championship this year, declaring that between his duties, "I will win" in 2018. Asked if he can win in F1, Alonso answered: "I don't know. We'll see. But I said I am going to win this year and I will."

Alonso drove an all-orange McLaren entry in the Indy 500 last year, and now there is speculation the British team will field a similar livery in F1. "I haven't seen the colours but if it is orange like in Indy it will be perfect," he said.

"But it's also perfect if a sponsor comes and paints it whatever colour at the last moment. What is really certain is that expectations are much better than we had in the last three winters. The atmosphere in the factory is much more positive," said Alonso. (GMM)

F1 News Fernando Alonso McLaren Renault

Replies (8)

Smiler121

Posts: 53
Let's hope they don't suffer from reliability & cause him to have a tantrum or he'll ha e been involved in dramas while driving engines by all 4 manufacturers at some point, although admittedly the Mclaren Mercedes it was for Mclaren cheating not Mercedes who took the blame!
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- Feb 13 2018 - 14:40
RacetoWin

Posts: 95
I'm thinking it will be easy for the teams to circumvent the engine and power unit rules this year, all that has to happen is all teams choose to change and take the penalty that resets the grid as is. Renault choosing to give Torro Rosso intentional penalties last year to improve their points standings was bad for the sport. Teams should be able to decline the engine manufacturers request to change the power unit if they believe they are being targeted and the FIA should investigate and penalize these companies who are hurting these teams on track result for their own gain.

the only way to prevent any of this form happening is with fines and removal of constructors points.

We will see some teams turn down power to play it safe and be stronger later in the season. We have all seen Mercedes get away with taking penalties without much effect on the final race results.
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- Feb 13 2018 - 17:26
Major Tom

Posts: 152
What happened to Zak Brown's declared team policy of 'under promising and over delivering'?
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- Feb 13 2018 - 17:46
- Barron
  
  Posts: 625
  Have they undelivered on one if Zak Brown’s promises yet? Not challenging you, just interested to know.
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  Feb 13 2018 - 18:29
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  A title sponsor? Arguably his main duty in the team as of present.
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  Feb 13 2018 - 20:15
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Total faith in Renault? Because these last years has really shown Renault in good, heavenly light, now have they?
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- Feb 13 2018 - 20:16
- mclarenfan1968
  
  Posts: 1,027
  It's a lot lot better than whiny Marko and butthurt Horny man Christian made it out to be. So yeah Alonso drops the melodrama for once with regards to properly gauging Renault engines.
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  Feb 14 2018 - 04:27
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  So much better that Renault was understocked on spares? So much better that Renault in fact had to downclock their units more than Honda at the end of last season? Yeah, great stuff.
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  Feb 14 2018 - 06:08