Honda 'working on countermeasure' for Mexican GP after double failure

Honda F1’s Yusuke Hasegawa says two MGU-H failures on race day at the United States Grand Prix was disappointing and it is working on a solution to avoid further failures at the next race in Mexico.

After an issue with Stoffel Vandoorne’s MGU-H was detected on the morning of the US race which forced him to the back of the grid with an engine change penalty, the same fate hit Fernando Alonso during the race as his MGU-H failed at mid-race distance.

Honda is currently investigating the issue and it is not yet confirmed whether the two problems were related but technical chief Hasegawa says a precautionary measure will be taken to avoid similar failures at the back-to-back race in Mexico this weekend.

“It’s very disappointing that we faced more issues with our PU – particularly because the reliability has been relatively stable in recent races,” Hasegawa said. “We will immediately investigate the issue with the Sakura team and work towards a countermeasure for Mexico next weekend.

“We came to the United States Grand Prix with high hopes of being able to score some much-needed points, and unfortunately reliability issues across both cars cost us a top-ten finish.

“In the morning we detected an issue with Stoffel’s MGU-H and made the decision to switch his power unit. This meant he started the race from the back of grid, giving him a tough task. It was unfortunate he couldn’t quite score a point to reward his efforts.

“Fernando started from eighth on the grid and was up into seventh at the start. He maintained his position and kept his rivals behind him, until his race came to a premature end because of an MGU-H issue.”

Alonso’s US GP retirement marked McLaren-Honda’s first in-race mechanical DNF since the Italian Grand Prix when Vandoorne was forced out early with an electrical issue.