Surprises

Given Fernando Alonso’s disappointments with McLaren-Honda’s glacial progress this season, and his penchant for “stirring the pot” with “highly seasoned” comments, the surprise is that he waited until his engine manufacturers’ home track of Suzuka to break his silence. When his boost-limited McLaren was overtaken by two rookie drivers in midfield cars on the long home straight, he could hold his tongue no longer, venting over his radio that he felt massively “frustrated”, and then following up by loudly calling Honda’s engine package merely “GP2”. It was not lost on anyone that both McLaren’s Ron Dennis and Honda’s President were listening to Alonso’s live world-feed race radio transmissions, leaving scant room for any McLaren PR spin to limit the damage…

Speaking of Ron Dennis, he holds firm to the idea that you can’t win the F1 championship without a works engine deal, even though Brawn, Benetton and Red Bull did so in the past. Further, Toyota, while in the sport, was consistently humbled by Williams beating them using their engine. Finally, last year, Williams again did a better job than McLaren with the same Mercedes engine. Perhaps the problem lies with the management of his team.

Equally surprising, Jenson Button didn’t announce his McLaren F1 retirement at Suzuka. It seemed everyone and his brother “knew” it was imminent, except Button. To add to the baffling intrigue, Ron Dennis (that name again) stated that both Jenson and Alonso were set for 2016. Both drivers reacted with statements declaring Dennis’ announcement was a best “premature”.