Fernando Alonso fears he could end the season with no points after failing to score again in the fifth round of the championship.
The Aston Martin driver finished 11th in Jeddah, which he said was the most the car was capable of.
“I gave everything on track,” he said. “It was hard to keep up the pace with the cars in front. We were just not quick enough.
“P11 is the worst position probably you can finish and we need to get used to it. It’s going to be difficult to score points this year.”
Alonso finished fifth in Jeddah last year but Aston Martin looked uncompetitive throughout this weekend. They were the only team who failed to lap quicker than they managed last year.
He said they “need a lot of performance” to stand a chance of finishing inside the top 10. He said the team’s result was flattered by other drivers hitting trouble.
“Today we are P11 also because Yuki [Tsunoda] and Gasly had contact in lap one and Liam [Lawson] had a 10-second penalty,” he said. “If not, we were P14. But there’s still a long way to go.”
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The last season Alonso contested in which he failed to score a point over the opening five rounds was in 2017, when he drove for McLaren-Honda.
He had a near-miss when he almost collided with Gabriel Bortoleto when he caught the Sauber driver at turn one. “It was close,” said Alonso. “I chose to go on the outside, but there was some risk by doing that.
“He obviously didn’t see me and I had to take avoiding action in turn one and I quickly gave back the position, because I was not making the corner, to avoid any penalty.”
Bortoleto, who is managed by Alonso, admitted afterwards “I didn’t see him” as he was busy racing another driver for position.
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