Fernando Alonso says he feared an IndyCar style impact in his United States Grand Prix Formula 1 crash with Lance Stroll. On Lap 22 at Austin, the race restarted after Valtteri Bottas spun off with Alonso's Alpine tucked up behind the Aston Martin of 2023 teammate Lance Stroll. However, Stroll jinked to the left in a late defensive move to which Alonso could not react and subsequently rammed the rear of the Aston. The Spanish driver briefly got airborne and hit the barrier on the outside, but was able to recover back to the pits for repairs and stay in the race. He would finish seventh on the road, but a Haas protest post-race about the condition of his car was upheld by the stewards - who issued Alonso a 10-second stop/go penalty, which was converted to a 30 second time penalty and dropped him to 15th. Speaking before the penalty was handed down, Alonso said he was expecting an IndyCar-style impact with the barriers after being launched.
Alonso on Stroll crash
"It was not nice, because when you are up in the air you are not aware of where you are on track," Alonso explained to media including RacingNews365.com. "I thought that I was much more on the left, and obviously, if you catch the lateral fence - the metallic one - then you spin in the air 360 degrees. You see these kinds of accidents a lot in IndyCar and they are quite dangerous. "When the car landed on track, I felt okay, that all was safe. [I thought] the car for sure is going to be broken. "I drove slowly to the pits, thinking that we will retire the car. I was surprised when they changed the tyres and the front wing and sent me out. "I said: 'Okay, it's just a test, but they will call me in on the next lap', but no, the car apparently was okay when they checked it visually. Everything was fine. So we kept going." One such crash in IndyCar that Alonso was referring to came in 2018 at Pocono when Robert Wickens was launched into the catch-fencing after contact. The Canadian is now paraplegic having suffered spinal fractures among other severe injuries - but has returned to racing, albeit not in single-seaters.
Just a racing incident
Alonso reported that the car felt "very good on the left corners and quite bad on the right corners," but gradually got better throughout the race. The stewards felt Stroll was predominantly to blame for the collision - handing him a three-place grid penalty for Mexico City and two penalty points - however Alonso revealed that both drivers felt it was just a racing incident. "Honestly, when you see the thing on the TV, it is a racing incident to be honest," he said. "We moved basically at the same time to the left - and that was the trigger of everything. It was a very unfortunate moment for everyone. "We were okay in the stewards room I think it was more between our sporting directors than between us. "I think we saw the incident in the same with same eyes and our sporting directors saw it in completely different eyes."
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