Alonso rolls the dice, but not at the Monaco Grand Prix
Formula One rolls into Monte Carlo this weekend for its annual marquee event, and the driver drawing the most attention is the one who is absent.
You gotta hand it to Fernando Alonso. He’s managed to hog headlines on both sides of the Atlantic by trading in the glitz of the Monaco Grand Prix for the grandeur of the Indianapolis 500.
Not that this is a publicity stunt. Alonso is more than justified for wanting to chase a new adventure after spinning his wheels at McLaren-Honda this season. And it’s not his fault the timing of the two events conflict.
How bad has it been at McLaren? This bad: After five races, the Spaniard has zero points and four retirements, none of them his fault.
Let’s start at the start. In Australia, a damaged floor forced him to stop on lap 50. The following stop, in China, it was a broken half-shaft on lap 33.
Then came Bahrain, where he retired on lap 54 with what he described as “some problem in the engine,” while teammate Stoffel Vandoorne was unable to start at all, also because of engine woes.
By now, Alonso was getting increasingly vocal about his frustrations, more with Honda than McLaren. “I’ve never raced with less power in my life,” he complained over the team radio, with a TV audience in the millions listening.
Then, in Russia, it was his turn to sit out, after a problem with his car’s energy recovery system during the warm-up lap ended his race before it began.
Finally, at his home Spanish Grand Prix, Alonso managed to finish for the first time — 12th out of 16 finishers, and two laps down from Mercedes winner Lewis Hamilton.
No wonder Alonso was looking to escape, even for one weekend.
Perhaps more surprising is that the brass at McLaren saw fit to let him go. Then again, they did not want to further aggravate their star driver, a two-time champion who’s up for contract renewal.
Still, Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner wasn’t completely out of line when he called his McLaren counterpart, Zak Brown, “barking mad” for springing Alonso loose.
After all, it won’t be a Sunday drive in the usual sense at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Even the most experienced racers can get caught out on the world’s most famous high-speed oval.
Last week, Sébastien Bourdais suffered multiple fractures in a terrifying crash during qualifying. The four-time Champ Car titlist was travelling at more than 370 km/h when his car crashed into a wall, flipped and caught fire.
Now, Bourdais — a former F1 driver — is recovering and out for the season.
“Zak has this problem,” Horner told reporters in reference to Alonso. “He has a depressed driver on his hands and he is trying to keep him motivated . ... I think he needs to see a psychiatrist, personally.”
The good news is Alonso has been impressive so far in his Indy Car debut. He was the fastest driver at the “rookies and refreshers” test, then qualified fifth among 33 drivers for Sunday’s race.
And the interest has been huge. Never mind headlines. The live stream of his first test with McLaren Honda Andretti Autosport was reported to have attracted more than 2 million views online.
Back in Monaco, former teammate Jenson Button — now a reserve driver with McLaren Honda — is filling in this weekend in another baptism by fire. It’s his first time behind the wheel of the new-specification 2017 car.
It could be, though, that the stand-in ends up scoring McLaren’s first points of the season. Button is an experienced driver who has won here before, and Honda’s power deficit is less of an issue on the slow, twisty street circuit.
Also looking for his first points is Montreal-born rookie Lance Stroll, who was 16th and last among the finishers in Spain two weekends ago in what has been a difficult start to his F1 career.
His troubles continued in Monte Carlo, where the 18-yearold crashed his Williams during Thursday practice at the same spot, he noted, where he is prone to crashing while driving the circuit on his Play Station.
Ha ha. If that was meant to be a joke, it’s doubtful it drew any laughs from the mechanics tasked with resuscitating the wreckage, or from his bosses at Williams.
To be fair, for rookies and veterans alike, Monaco is a notoriously difficult circuit to navigate, famously described as trying to ride a bicycle in your living room.
That means anything can happen on Sunday, and the expected fight at the front between the usual suspects — Mercedes and Ferrari — should be viewed with an asterisk.
As it stands, Hamilton trails Sebastian Vettel by a slim six points after five races, with each having won twice.
As for Alonso, here’s hoping he will return from his Indianapolis 500 adventure rejuvenated and primed for the next stop on the F1 calendar — the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve the weekend after next.