Fernando Alonso had “a feeling of heaviness” in the steering before his crash
The McLaren-Honda team has officially announced that its driver is expected to return to competition for the Malaysian Grand Prix of F1, while providing some additional information about his accident during private testing.
As announced this Sunday by the Spanish press, Fernando Alonso is expected to return to the wheel of the McLaren MP4-30 for the Malaysian Grand Prix. This information comes almost exactly a month after the accident and concussion that sidelined the driver from the Australian Grand Prix.
This time, it is indeed the British team itself that made the announcement through a statement published on its website. « McLaren-Honda is pleased to announce that, subject to the final FIA medical assessment scheduled for this Thursday, March 26 at the Sepang circuit, Fernando Alonso will be back in the cockpit of his MP4-30 for the Malaysian Grand Prix, » it reads.
The team indicates that its driver has followed a rigorous specialized training program, designed and closely supervised by leading scientists. Present last week at the McLaren Technology Center, the Spaniard met with his engineers and drove in the simulator to become familiar with the latest developments on the MP4-30 chassis and the power unit.
As required by procedure, he spent time with the chief engineers discussing the accident and consulting the data and analyses, all of which were shared with the FIA, states the release, which goes further regarding the crash: While there is nothing notable in the car’s telemetry, nor anything abnormal in the reconstructions and lab tests that followed, Fernando remembers a feeling of heaviness in the steering before the accident. As a result, the team added an additional sensor to the car to improve our data collection.
Until now, only Flavio Briatore, former manager of Benetton and Renault and close to the two-time world champion, had mentioned the possibility of a steering failure. However, McLaren has not established this sensation as the cause of the accident, which remains, officially and in the absence of any contrary evidence, a loss of control following an overly wide exit in turn 3 of the Catalunya circuit combined with a strong gust of wind.
The statement ends as follows: « Fernando is very eager to get back in the car and make a substantial contribution to our collective efforts with Honda, in order to accelerate the pace of improvements required for our on-track performance. »
