Fernando Alonso, after suffering a breakdown in his car. /
preseason
A breakdown in the Alpine forced the team to abandon the last day of testing on the Catalan circuit
Reliability had been, until this Friday, Alpine’s great argument for continuing to believe in ‘The Plan’. The famous (and empty) concept that has raised the morale of the Alonso troops before the start of the 2022 season was based on the planned script until the last day of rehearsals at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
After exceeding 250 laps in the first two days, this Friday the two drivers were going to share the day. Fernando Alonso set out in the morning and it looked like it was going to be a good day, as he even started setting good times against his rivals. Midway through the morning session, the illusion bubble burst at the same time as the A522’s engine. It was at the entrance to the stadium area where white smoke (an unequivocal sign of an oil leak) began to come out of the blue and pink car. Alonso stopped the car a few meters further on and while the stewards ran, fire extinguisher in hand, he took off his gloves to go talk to a photographer who was right next to him.
The breakdown, which forced the first red flag of the day (later there were several more) was more serious than expected. After the mechanics thoroughly investigated the car, they discovered that the hydraulic system had a leak that required the car to be completely disassembled. The setback was greater when they discovered that the breakage was serious enough that Esteban Ocon’s participation in the afternoon session was compromised, so minutes before the lunch break, they announced that they were not going to go out again.
“Following investigations in the garage following Fernando Alonso’s track stop this morning, the team can confirm that the problem was a fault with the hydraulic system. A minor sealing problem caused a fire in the rear of the car.” The French team says goodbye to this first part of the preseason, with 266 laps completed in total, and a relatively low profile: they have not been the fastest, nor the ones that have completed the most laps. In addition, of the teams at the top of the table, they have been the first to be forced to leave.
They were far from the only ones with problems. In the morning alone there were five red flags, including the one caused by Alonso and including an accident involving Pierre Gasly against the barriers at turn 5. In the afternoon, when Sebastian Vettel also had a similar breakdown to Alonso’s and ended up with a fire extinguisher in hand, it was filmed on a wet track (although not in the rain, because it was artificially wet), a perfect opportunity for the drivers to test for the first time with the intermediate and wet Pirelli under the new 18-inch measurement. This meant that the fastest of the day was George Russell, with the Mercedes W13, thanks to the time he set before the midday break.
Without being decisive, the truth is that Mercedes put its rivals on notice on this last day in Barcelona. Lewis Hamilton completed a whopping 94 laps and finished with the fastest time of the day.
F1 will not go to Russia
After the meeting that was held on Thursday night in one of the motorhomes of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the FIA and Formula 1 made a decision that joins that of so many other sports entities (not all) that do not want step on the land of Vladimir Putin.
The Russian Grand Prix has been cancelled, as of today. The FIA issued a statement in which they chose their words very well to avoid being accused of unilaterally breaking the contract they had signed with the Sochi circuit. The reason is obvious: neither the pilots nor the team managers themselves felt comfortable traveling to an aggressor country. “The FIA visits cities around the world with a positive vision of bringing people together, bringing all nations together. We are watching the development of the situation in Ukraine with sadness and shock, and with the hope of a quick and peaceful resolution of the current situation. On Thursday night, F1, the FIA and the teams discussed the position of our sport, and the conclusion is that it is impossible to hold a GP in Russia under the current circumstances.”
The crisis in Ukraine has also affected the Haas team, whose future may be in serious jeopardy. This Friday they rolled without the stickers of their main sponsor, Uralkali, the Russian company of Dmitry Mazepin. As explained by Guenther Steiner, the boss of the American team (which until now is supported by Russian money, ironically), it was a decision to send a public message about his position. So much so that they are studying how to break the contract that, along the way, can take Nikita Mazepin ahead whose presence in F1 is only sustained by the financial contribution of his father.
