Fernando Alonso experienced one of the most dangerous moments of his career at the US GP. As the Spaniard ditched Lance Stroll to finish seventh, the Canadian moved to the left, colliding with the two of them, causing the Alpine to go on two hovering wheels.
Stroll was penalized by the FIA, who found him guilty of the accident, and in the next race he awarded three points in Mexico and two points in the superlicense. However, Alonso took the blame from his teammate the next year.
“Honestly, I saw what happened on TV and I think it’s a racing thing. We went left almost at the same time and that was the trigger for everything. So I think it was a very unfortunate moment. Everyone.” Alonso points out.
Both drivers were summoned to testify about the accident and, as Alonso said, both drivers agreed on everything when talking about the accident, but Alpine and Aston Martin’s executives had different views.
Alonso believes Stroll was moving late, but at these speeds everything is different: “Sure, but when you go 300 km/h, these movements, you know, you’re going 200 meters in a tenth of a second”.
“If it’s slow motion and you move frame by frame, it will move a little later than me. If you go at normal speed, you’ll see both cars at the same time. So after watching TV, I don’t think anything different can be done,” he adds.
The Asturian was shocked after the crash: “I thought you were much further to the left, and of course if you hit the metal fence at the end, you do a 360-degree turn in the air. These types of crashes. They happen a lot in IndyCar and they’re pretty dangerous. I thought I was going to get on that fence. Then the car hit the track. When it landed, I thought it was okay.”
Alonso thought he should retire
Alonso was convinced he would leave after his accident with Stroll: “I was surprised that they changed my tires and front wing and sent me to the track. I told myself it would all end here. But apparently not, the car was.” OK, everything was fine when they visually checked it, so we moved on.”
Finally, he applauds Alpine’s strategy: “The second part of the bad news was that we were at the end of that set of hard tires and there were still 32 laps and I thought we’d never get there. Good decision by the team and good strategy. A good decision by the team and a good strategy that broke the P7 and we were last. Finishing with the car is an important thing.”