Fernando Alonso had nothing left in his body in F1 Brazil GP end after bouncing and brake issues hurt him in another difficult outing.
Aston Martin continued its terrible run in 2024 F1 season in Brazil GP. After both cars crashed out in qualifying, the mechanics did a solid job to repair the cars for the race. They were running old and mix of parts, thereby making it a slower package overall.
Even before the start, Aston Martin suffered a jolt when Lance Stroll spun off on the formation lap as he applied the brakes. In his try to return to the circuit, he ran over the gravel and got himself beached, which ended his run. He couldn’t even complete a lap.
“Yeah strange,” said Stroll. “As soon as I touched the brakes, I just had a huge rear lock, and then I was a passenger from there. I never felt that in the car. So maybe there was a brake failure problem. We have to look into it. I was stuck in the gravel and my race was done.
“It is such a shame because in a wet race like today anything can be possible, but we were not able to take those opportunities,” summed up Stroll, as teammate Alonso managed to continue, but also faced similar issues from his brakes as well. He did as much to counter those problems and continue on.
But together with the brakes, the bouncing/porpoising started to hurt his back. Already he had intestinal issues from Mexico into Brazil. He had to fly to Europe and missed Thursday media session in Brazil. Post-race, he could be seen taking his time to get out of the car, with Aston Martin mechanics helping him out.
Even Carlos Sainz stopped in to check. Towards the end of the race, Alonso radioed that he was in pain and only finishing the race for the mechanics who repaired his car. “It was a lot of bouncing, a lot of porpoising in the second half of the race, I don’t know why,” he said to media. “It was a tough race, we were out of the points.
“I think in any other circumstances, probably I would have stopped. But the mechanics did an incredible job before the race to put the car ready on the grid, so I had to finish for them, But it was a difficult race. After this morning, we had to go back to a less-performing package on the car, so the race was a little bit of a slower pace from our side.
“Then we had a brake issue – I think Lance had a brake problem in the formation lap – and I had the brake issue after all the restarts, where the brake balance goes completely rearwards. It’s like braking with a handbrake. So all in all it was a nightmare out there, but we need to get better for the next three [races].
“It was painful, for sure. The lead into this race was a lot of preparation from my side, a lot of checks, a lot of work, a lot of physio, doctors in order to come here to Brazil, so it was a lot of effort from everybody. Same effort as the mechanics [put in] today. All the checks have been done. I check everything the last two or three days. We did a lot of work on my condition.
“I think after this race we have a setback, for sure, on my body. So for the next four or five days, we have to reset everything. It was not comfortable in the car, but there are people worse than me. Also in Valencia, we have these terrible images and people struggling, so I had to struggle through a couple of laps for everybody,” summed up Alonso.
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP panned out
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP sprint panned out
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