Alonso: “Destiny” to retire from 400th race after feeling “love” from F1 paddock

Adam Cooper
30/10/2024

Fernando Alonso says it was “destiny” to retire from his 400th Formula 1 race in Mexico City with overheating brakes after his unique milestone put him in the spotlight all weekend.

The Aston Martin driver suffered with soaring front left brake temperatures after a visor tear-off was caught in the duct.

He was thus called into retire after only 15 laps while running outside the points in 13th place.

“The start was a little bit chaotic,” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about the first lap. “But I think we took advantage, Lance [Stroll] and myself, to gain some positions. I think we were under control, 11th and 12th, waiting for some opportunities, maybe to score points.

But by lap 13, or something like that, apparently, the temperatures were unsafe and a little bit over the moon on the front left, so we took some actions on the steering wheel to protect the front temperatures.

“But they told me there is a little a bit of debris or tear-off or something in the front from brake duct. So destiny, a little bit unlucky today to not finish the race.”

Alonso added: “Initially, the team was spotting the temperature. And then the last two laps, the brake pedal was slowing, and I think we reached an unsafe temperature to keep running.”

Alonso said that the team had learned some useful information having run a mixture of older and newer parts, and different specs on both cars.

“It was a useful weekend,” he said. “A lot of testing going on in FP1, FP2, some conclusions that we can take on board. And, yeah, hopefully we come back stronger.

“The level of performance is still not where we want to be, and we need more, so more evaluation will come in Brazil.”

Alonso said he appreciated the attention that his 400 races record attracted.

“It was a good weekend in that side, a lot of love from everyone in the paddock this weekend, a lot of respect,” he said. “So it was nice to feel all of that. And I take it. I have a positive feeling after this weekend, despite the result, after the emotions that I was going through from Friday to today’s race.

“So, yeah, looking forward for a better result. As I said, first of all, the performance needs to get better. It was a unlucky weekend, with the yellow flag in Q2, and with today the debris on the front brake duct.

“But some other weekends, I was very lucky. And we were maybe not in the points today. So I take the bad luck when we are not in the points.”

Asked if Interlagos will suit the car he said: “Last year it did. I think we were out of Q1 or nearly out of Q1 here in Mexico, and then we went in Brazil, and we fought for a podium until the last lap. So yeah, reasonably confident that Brazil will get better.”

Krack

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack acknowledged that the temperature issue could not be resolved, and added that he hopes Alonso’s 401st race will be better.

“It was building, building, building,” he said. Normally in the first 10 laps of a race everything is overheating. And then there is stabilisation phase.

“But we saw quickly that on the brake side. It did not stabilise, it just went and went. And then if you go into the oxidation phase, that is something that you should always avoid.

“So we had to make the unfortunate call that 400th race we had to end it quite early. I said it to his own colleagues we have to make sure that 401 is the proper one.”

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