Fernando Alonso has rejected McLaren’s verdict on the pre-season crash that left him concussed and said it was caused by a steering problem.
The Spaniard has been passed fit to return to action at this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, where he spoke about the accident for the first time.
Although the team said there was no sign of a failure, Alonso said the car “definitely had a steering problem”.
He also denied he had come round after the crash thinking he was 15.
The two-time champion said that some of the official explanations about the incident given by both McLaren and his own management were “not a help”.
He added: “Some of the confusion comes from the early quotes when the pressure was very high and I was in intensive care and there was an urgency to say something.”
Among the early information relayed by the team was that the car might have been blown off course by strong gusting winds.
Alonso said: “Definitely not. Even a hurricane will not move the car at that speed.”
The 33-year-old, who missed the first race of the season on medical advice, said the crash in pre-season testing on 22 February did not knock him out.
He explained that he lost consciousness only in either the ambulance or at the circuit medical centre as a result of medication and that he remembered the whole accident.
“Everything was more or less normal concussion,” he said. “I went to the hospital in good conditions. There is a time I don’t remember in hospital from two o’clock to six o’clock in the afternoon that day but that is normal due to the medication. Then everything was normal.
“I didn’t wake up in 1996, didn’t wake up speaking in Italian; all these things that were out there. I remember the accident and everything from the accident.”
Alonso said the steering “locked to the right” as he rounded Turn Three at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“I approached the wall, I braked in the last moment, I downshifted,” he said. “After the hit, I was kissing the wall for a while. I switched off the radio and then the master switch and then the Ers (hybrid system).
“I was perfectly conscious at that time. I lost consciousness in the ambulance or clinic but the doctors say this is normal for the medication and the checks they put on you for the MRI.”
He explained the fact that the team could not find evidence to support the car locking to the right was due to shortcomings in McLaren’s data acquisition on that part of the car.
Fernando Alonso also reacted to his green light to return to racing on Twitter
The team said they have fitted an extra sensor to improve their data capture.
Alonso is likely to be at the back for his return as McLaren have started the season in uncompetitive form due to a lack of power from their new Honda engine.
His former team, Ferrari, were the second best team after Mercedes at the first race but Alonso said he had no regrets about his decision and still had faith McLaren would take him to a third world title.
“I’m one of the happiest people in the world,” he said. “I have a challenge in front of me. A tough challenge, clearly. I understand we are too far back and will be heavily criticised and that will be fair.
“It is difficult but it is going to taste better when we do it.”
Chief F1 writer Andrew Benson |
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“Fernando Alonso set Formula 1 on fire with his performance in the official news conference ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix. |
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“After the tumultuous season he spent at McLaren in 2007, everyone was waiting for some kind of fissure to appear in their relationship this time around. But no one was expecting it to happen before he had even raced the car. |
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“McLaren say their exhaustive analysis of Alonso’s crash in pre-season testing has thrown up no evidence of a car failure, although they have been careful not to say definitively that there was not. |
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But rather than sticking to the company line, Alonso chose to say – in response to the very first question on the subject – that the car “definitely had a steering problem”. The interesting thing is what happens next. |
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“Later in a remarkable, eloquent, clear-spoken and good-humoured performance, Alonso said he was “the happiest man in the world” to be at McLaren-Honda despite their poor start to the season. |
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“But can the relationship survive for long after this? It is going to be a fascinating few months.” |
