Alonso claims PU "evolution" makes comparisons "difficult"

Fernando Alonso has stated it is near-impossible to draw comparisons between the Ferrari, Honda and Renault power units.

Although not the first driver to have sampled power units from three or more suppliers, that honour is shared by Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, Alonso is one of only a handful of drivers to have done so.

Through his time with Ferrari, McLaren and now Alpine, Alonso has experience of power units from the Scuderia, Honda and Renault.

However, given his only experience of a Ferrari V6 turbo hybrid unit was in 2014, the first year of the configuration and he has not experienced Honda power since 2017, the Spaniard refused to draw comparisons between the rival manufacturers.

"I think the power unit comparisons are difficult to make because many things changed, not just the power of the engines," said Alonso.

"The regulations changed slightly, now there is this constant engine mode for qualifying and the race and there are always different things to compare."

During his time with McLaren, especially after the team welcomed Honda back into the sport in 2015, reliability was a constant problem.

In total, Alonso retired from 17 races and also failed to start the Russian Grand Prix of 2017 after suffering a problem on the formation lap.

"What I can say is we are very happy in our team with the power unit we have this year," he added.

"It is an evolution from last year, and it has felt very strong, we have had zero issues and I think the main difference in the last six years is the reliability improvements.

"It’s quite difficult to see any problems on any of the engines throughout racing, testing."

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