Anthony Davidson feels Fernando Alonso was “too impatient” with Honda

Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson believes Fernando Alonso was too impatient with Honda during his time with McLaren between 2015-2017. Davidson believes Honda always gets results, but Alonso probably didn’t give them enough time to deliver.

In an interview with the Dutch edition of Motosport.com, the F1 pundit said:

"I wonder how he has looked at Honda's performance over the past year. I wonder if Fernando is now like, 'If only I had been a little more patient and given it a little more time'. Of course, no one can see into the future. But I'm curious how he looked at Honda, now that they had such a strong power unit."

He added:

“Would he think things like, 'If only McLaren had kept working with Honda and I had just kept driving there'? If they still had that power unit in the car and Fernando would still have driven there, we would probably have had a very different scenario now.”

Anthony Davidson formerly drove in F1 between 2007-08 with a Honda power unit, and for many years prior to that acted as the test driver for the BAR-Honda team. He says that the Japanese manufacturer always delivered on their promises but felt that extracting performance took time.

“From my past experience with Honda I know that sometimes it can take a while to see progress, but in the end, they always get it done. “You just have to let them find their way and do it their own way.”

After five frustrating years at Ferrari, during which time he failed to win the championship, Fernando Alonso switched to McLaren for the 2015 season. He drove alongside Jenson Button, hoping for better luck with the British outfit.

Meanwhile, McLaren themselves were going through a difficult period with internal conflicts and mismanagement negatively affecting their on-track performances. In a drastic effort to improve their performance, McLaren brought Honda into F1 a year before it was originally planned. However, the partnership failed to yield results, and the two parted ways just two years later.

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When Fernando Alonso insulted Honda during the Japanese Grand Prix

During the McLaren-Honda years, Fernando Alonso was infamous for expressing his displeasure with what he perceived to be Honda’s inferior performances. During the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix, at Honda’s home race, Fernando Alonso infamously called his power unit a “GP2 engine” – implying that it was unfit to be in F1.

During an interview with F1 Racing Magazine in 2020, Fernando Alonso expressed regret at his GP2 comments. He said that he wasn’t expecting his private conversations with his engineers to be broadcast on TV.

“I was talking to my engineer in a private conversation [which was broadcast]. It was not meant to be public. But the engine was very bad. The first year in Jerez, in four days we did seven laps.”

He added:

“Now Honda wins a race and I receive a lot of messages that read: ‘GP2 engine wins now, it should be a sad day for you. I’m very happy, but the engine I had in the car was not the same as the one winning in Brazil.”

The Honda engine was thought to be severely underpowered compared to the competition, and was generally unreliable. It led to McLaren finishing second to last with just 27 points during their first year together.