Is age finally catching up with 43-year-old Alonso?

The 43-year-old Spaniard has yet to score a point and was forced to retire four laps into Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix with flaming disk brakes. Alonso revealed afterwards that he has been coping with a neck injury.

Alonso told Spanish reporters in Shanghai: "I was wearing some neck protection because I've had a pinched nerve or something these past few days but in the end, it didn't help much because I didn't do many laps.

"We had a brake issue. The rear brakes were very hot from the first lap and on the last one before retiring, I hit the brakes into turn one and the pedal went all the way down with no braking power," revealed Alonso.

The two-time F1 world champion has not won a race since 2013 and is still seeking an elusive 33rd career F1 victory. Currently, Alonso sits at the bottom of the driver standings with four others who have yet to register a point, and he is 10 points behind Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll.

Alonso crashed out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and said that he was "lucky" to have not taken out other cars when his car began to fail in Shanghai.

The Aston Martin team has a few weeks to address issues with Alonso's car before the next race in Japan on April 5, which begins a stretch of three consecutive race weeks.

"Now we need to understand what happened and next is a triple-header. Hopefully, I can see the checkered flag for the first time this year and we can turn things around in Japan," added Alonso.