Fernando in a spin as F1 testing begins
McLAREN are playing catchup after a wheel nut failure wrote off Fernando Alonso’s opening morning of Formula One pre-season testing in Barcelona.
The British team headed into Monday’s first winter test brimming with optimism after ditching their beleaguered engine supplier Honda and teaming up with Renault for 2018.
But there was an all-too familiar story for the Woking marque after Alonso, 36, spun into the gravel when his right-rear wheel detached from his McLaren.
Alonso, who had completed six laps with the session just 37 minutes old, emerged unscathed from the incident before crouching down to examine his stricken car and walking back to the garage.
Track time is imperative in testing with only eight days of running before the campaign gets under way in Melbourne on March 25.
The weather could also play a role in Spain with sleet and rain forecast for later in the week.
Although Alonso returned to the circuit later in the day to take his lap count to 51, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who set the fastest time, managed more than a century of circuits, while Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, second fast- est on the time sheets, and team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was fifth, completed 83 laps between them.
All eyes are on McLaren this season following their underwhelming displays in recent years.
Naturally, they moved to play down Alonso’s early failure, but it is hardly the start they would have wanted.
“It was a very, very small problem, but very graphic and very obvious because a car in the gravel is a big thing,” Alonso said.
“But there are six teams in the garage with the doors closed and the cars in pieces, but no one sees that. There is no picture of that. There are a lot of teams in big trouble, but us with a wheel nut failure, that will make the story.”
Alonso, the double world champion who extended his McLaren deal in October, failed to finish more than half the races he contested during a miserable campaign.