Fernando Alonso hints at further Aston Martin penalty after Barcelona failure

Fernando Alonso has suggested he could face another pit lane start at the Austrian Grand Prix following his retirement in Barcelona on Sunday.

Aston Martin opted to make changes to Alonso’s car before his home race, adding further power unit components to his allocation.

The modifications breached parc fermé conditions, meaning Alonso was forced to start from the pit lane after qualifying 22nd and last on Saturday.

However, the Spaniard’s difficult weekend continued as he ground to a halt midway through the race, suffering his fourth retirement in seven grands prix.

“The engineer came on the radio saying to stop the car and jump out of the car,” Alonso explained to media including RacingNews365.

“So I imagined it was an ERS problem when you have to jump out of the car. Apparently, it's the battery.”

Alonso's retirement compounded a highly challenging weekend for Aston Martin, as the Spaniard joined his team-mate Lance Stroll on the sidelines after the Canadian driver suffered a gearbox issue shortly after the start.

Alonso has suggested that his Barcelona woes will have a direct impact on his Austria weekend later this month, as he anticipates he will likely have to take another grid penalty.

“We changed some of the parts and they broke in the race, unfortunately,” he said.

“That's maybe another pit lane start in Austria, but it's what it takes now.

“We are struggling on performance, but also on reliability, it's still not bulletproof. We're still dealing with a lot of issues.”