Fernando Alonso rues 'one in 10 million' failure after freak incident

Fernando Alonso has rued the "one in 10 million" suspension failure which eliminated him from the Italian Grand Prix. 

Having pitted from a points position, Alonso emerged ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto in the lower reaches of the midfield whilst other drivers were yet to stop, but on lap 24, he suffered a right-front suspension failure. 

Bortoleto would go on to finish in eighth place, meaning Alonso could have been set for another strong points haul, with the team disclosing in the aftermath that some gravel hit the two-time champion's car on the opening lap "in multiple areas, including the suspension".

The failure was eventually caused by "low-level continuous loading of the part" as Alonso dropped out of a points finish through mechanical problems for the second time in 2025, after an engine failure whilst running sixth in Monaco.

Reflecting on the freak nature of the incident, Alonso gave astronomical odds of it happening again.

"They told me on Monday or Tuesday after the race, and I know it was not for the kerb, so it was a suspension failure," Alonso told media, including RacingNews365. 

"The cause of it was not a production thing or quality control; it was just bad luck as the stone hit a physical part of the car, which was not strong enough, but there is nothing we can do now, and unfortunately, it was more bad luck.

"It is [a part of the car] which is always going to be exposed, and some external objects come to the car, but I think it is a one in 10 million case, so I hope another 10 million races, I will not have another failure like that.

"These things can happen, and I remember in 2022 with Alpine, the car was not bad, and I had 12 DNFs and was P5, P6, so we lost like 55-60 points, and this year, we are up to 22, I think.

"So it is a shame we cannot finish races on merit when we are in the points and then we are slow, normally things are always smooth and nice until the chequered flag, we score no points.

"But this is the way it is, and this is the nature of the sport, and as long as next year, we have a good car, we'll have normal luck. We don't ask for good luck, but normal luck is okay."