Fernando Alonso has again insisted he has no concerns about engine usage as he heads into the final five races of the season with no new units available to him.
Alonso used his eighth Ferrari engine of the season at Monza, hitting the limit under the regulations before a 10-place grid penalty applies for fitting a ninth. By comparison, both McLaren drivers and Sebastian Vettel have used seven, while championship leader Mark Webber has used six.
Alonso's higher usage is due to a number of problems at the start of the season and a failure at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Since then the Ferrari V8 has been altered to improve reliability and Alonso is confident that the engines he has available are of sufficiently low mileage to last him until the end of the season.
"There is no reason to worry about engine problems, because our engines can also be used more," he said. "And there are no other tracks where we are on the throttle for most of the lap."
Stefano Domenicali added that Singapore specifically was easy on engines.
"It is a street circuit, where the engines are less important," said the Ferrari team principal.
McLaren race engineer Phil Prew expects the problem to limit Ferrari's practice mileage but not cause any problems in the races.
"I think it will only affect their Friday running, in terms of running used engines on the Friday," he told the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. "Sadly I don't think that will give us any advantage over them."
Source: ESPNF1
