Tag Archives: Alonso

McLaren has confirmed that Stoffel Vandoorne is on standby to drive in the Chinese GP, pending an FIA medical check for Fernando Alonso on Thursday morning.

Vandoorne travelled to Shanghai on Tuesday, on the same plane as team boss Eric Boullier.

“Once again, Stoffel will be on standby until Fernando has his routine meeting with FIA doctors on Thursday,” said Boullier. “And until then we will be readying ourselves as normal. Fernando has been recuperating at home and training as usual, and we, like him, hope to see him back in the car. We’ll accept the outcome – whatever that may be – and plan accordingly.”

Meanwhile Alonso said: “It was disappointing to be told I couldn’t race in Bahrain, but I fully respected the decision of the FIA medical team. While I hope I’ll be back in the cockpit on Friday, until I get the all-clear from the doctors to race – whenever that may be – we cannot assume anything, but I’m continuing to prepare for the race weekend as normal.”

Stoffel Vandoorne enjoyed a troublefree first day as a McLaren race driver in Bahrain, finishing FP2 in a solid 11^th place.

Vandoorne only arrived in Bahrain this morning after an overnight flight from japan, but he’d used at least part of the flight to do some homework.

“Eric [Boullier] called me a bit earlier this week that Fernando still had to pass the FIA tests,” said Vandoorne. “We booked a flight a day earlier just in case. In the end I got the call that I had to drive the race anyway.

“I got the call yesterday evening when I was about to leave Japan. From then on things started to get a little bit hectic. I had a lot of calls with all the McLaren engineers, they sent me all the files I had to know with all the information about the steering wheel, operationally before and during the race, about what we can and cannot say, what we have to do. I’ve spent my time well on the plane. I think today went very well after a night’s sleep. Thinking about tomorrow, I feel very confident about it.”

Vandoorne was happy with progress: “It’s definitely been great. I wasn’t expect to drive this weekend, but in the end I’m very happy for this opportunity. First of all I’m gonna try and do as good a job as possible for the team. I feel 100 percent ready for this. I think today was a very good day for me. I haven’t driven this car before but I quickly felt comfortable in the car.

“I progressed quite a lot through FP1 and quite a good feeling for FP2 as well. Most important for us was to do a lot of laps, we’ve done a lot of pitstops, practice starts, the operational stuff really. All those things I have to learn.

“I know a lot of the guys around here, so it makes my life a little bit easier to go and work with them. It’s definitely never an ideal situation to just jump in the car without any testing but so far this Friday it’s been very good during both practice sessions, feeling more and more comfortable. I think tomorrow that progression is going to go forward.”

Fernando Alonso has been ruled out of the Bahrain GP as a result of injuries sustained in his Melbourne crash – and the former World Champion will be replaced by McLaren third driver Stoffel Vandoorne for the rest of the weekend.

Alonso complained of a swollen knee and sore ribs after the accident, and following an FIA medical examination in Bahrain today he was ruled out because of the latter. Last year he missed the Australian GP as a result of his Barcelona testing accident.

An FIA statement said: “Following an examination undertaken this morning at the Bahrain International Circuit Medical Centre, it has been decided that McLaren Honda F1 Team driver Fernando Alonso should not take part in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Two sets of chest CT scans were compared and it was decided on safety grounds that there was insufficient resolution of the signs to allow him to compete on safety grounds.”

It added: “A repeat chest scan has been requested before the Chinese Grand Prix and the results will be considered before allowing him to race there.”

Vandoorne was in Japan for a Super Formula test when he got the news that he will be racing this weekend, and he duly rushed to the airport. He said on Twitter: “About to board for Bahrain, a bit earlier than expected but so much looking forward to it! Will do my very best for the team.”

Fernando Alonso returned to McLaren-Honda duty in Barcelona on Tuesday, and the Spaniard enjoyed a trouble-free day as he logged a respectable total of 119 laps – in stark contrast to the form the team showed last year.

Alonso was in relaxed mood afterwards, and he made it clear that recent suggestions he might stop if the packaged was uncompetitive are wide of the mark.

However, he stressed that there is still much work to do for the team and its engine partner.

“It’s good to be back and good to complete a good number of laps which I missed last year,” he said. “We did seven laps the first day, 25 the second, 13 the third day, and then we went to Australia… I think by race five or race six we were still discovering little things on the car that were hurting us a lot in terms of points and in terms of performance during the year. That was the first priority for the team and for this winter, make sure that we went through the problems that we had last year.

“We put some solutions, and we did I think, at least on the reliability side. I’m proud of the team and proud of the job that everyone put together in this car. I enjoyed the day, but there is performance that we need to unlock in the car.

“Most of the work we did today were laps for aerodynamic study and laps for reliability study, temperatures, brake temperatures, water temperatures, many things that from a driver point of view were not very exciting, anyone can do those kinds of laps and those studies let’s say, and I’m looking forward to do some set-up change or some soft tyres or different fuels to really enjoy the driving as well.”

He was adamant that the power unit is better, but made it clear that it had to be, given its poor performance last year.

“Definitely yes, but this is let’s say an answer that we could not have any doubts, because the starting point or the power and deficit that we had last year compared to the top teams, it was just too high. We did improve all the areas of the car. I think on the aerodynamic side there are parts which are quite innovative and quite new, in our car, at least. Maybe the others had these ideas in the past, but for us they are quite new.

“We need a little bit of time to mature the project, the package. And in the power unit the same thing. For us last year there was a lot of learning, a lot of pain, but we learned many things, and now with a completely new design, or philosophy of power unit, we still need a little bit of time to understand and exploit the potential.”

Asked if the targets can he achieved Alonso said: “Honestly, I don’t know. There is not a crystal ball in F1 that you can bet or you can know more or less which direction the year will go after the first day of testing, or even after the two weeks of testing. I think we need to wait for Australia when we are all in the same conditions, with supersoft tyres and low fuel, same track conditions, and then we see. And even that I think we need to wait for two or three races to know for sure how the year will turn to you.

“Sitting here, or last week, in the factory, or even taking the plane to Australia, the ambition is very high. I’m not here just to travel around the world and jump in the car and have some fun on Sunday. I’m here to win. All the 22 drivers, they want the same, and for me it’s no different.”

Meanwhile Alonso joked about rumours that he will stop any time soon if the car is not competitive saying that with the long winter break there was a “dangerous tendency of being creative with the news. Asked if he will see out the season he said “of course, and the next one.”

Fernando did not want to comment on the Honda management changes, saying that he had only just found out about them.