Did Alonso park it? Honda finds no issues with engine

Honda Formula 1 chief Yusuke Hasegawa has revealed there was no sign of an engine issue in Fernando Alonso's engine data from the Belgian Grand Prix, but opted to retire his vehicle as a precaution on Sunday at Spa.

It was all downhill from there however as the under-powered McLaren-Honda was progressively swallowed up by its rivals, leaving the Spaniard frustrated as he fought outside the top ten.

With a full deployment of energy worth around 160hp, Alonso claimed on the radio that he had lost half a second at that moment - which was enough for him to abort his lap.

Fernando Alonso has tipped the future of the McLaren-Honda collaboration and his next move in F1 to be decided in "the next few weeks".

"After starting brilliantly, Fernando then had a tough race overall", said Hasegawa.

However, Hasegawa confirmed after the race that Alonso's engine data showed no abnormalities despite his report.

Stoffel Vandoorne started from the back amid a 65-place penalty and came home in 14 spot.

When asked how much longer he can put up with his situation, Alonso said: "Seven or eight more races".

"The auto was too slow on the straights and it was impossible to have any battles out there, so points were also impossible today".

"Eventually, we had to stop due to an engine issue".

There have been initial talks between McLaren and Renault about the French marque supplying power units to the Woking-based team, with managing director Cyril Abiteboul open to the idea of adding McLaren as one of its customers, though it would risk losing either Red Bull or Toro Rosso from its current roster. Mercedes and Ferrari are not interested in Alonso, while Red Bull's line-up of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen will remain unchanged for next year. "To 60 per cent of those offers I say no right away, the other 40 per cent are still on the table".