Alonso surprised by ‘weird’ Japan FP2 spin

Even Formula 1 world champions make mistakes – although Fernando Alonso indicated that fluctuations in the headwind at a critical part of the lap at Suzuka could have tipped him into the spin that brought second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix to a halt.

Alonso lost control at the entry to the first Degner turn and spun across the gravel, where the car became beached, requiring the second red-flag period of the session while his AMR25 could be recovered.

There is no means of extracting cars from trackside here because of the topography of the circuit: a short but sharp drop lies beyond the tyre barrier on the outside, while on the inside a grass bank slopes up to the outside of 130R.

“I don’t know, I need to review it,” Alonso said in the media pen after FP2.

“I lost the car in a weird way, it’s very windy and very gusty out there, and the car is a little bit critical. But yeah, I don’t know if I put a tyre on the grass or something.”

That appears to be exactly what happened.

This section of the lap is more technically challenging than it looks since the cars must shed speed at the last of the ‘S’ corners, then build it up again through the constant-radius Nippon curve that follows. The first Degner is more open than the second, so the drivers look to carry as much speed through there as possible.

To do this, drivers naturally move to the left-hand extremities of the track to open out the right-hander. Analysis of the onboard footage clearly shows Alonso straying over the white line on the approach, with his left-front wheel on the grass as he passes the 50-metre board.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing crash

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

The left-front was fully on the grass when he began to steer right. This unsettled the car’s rear end, which Alonso tried to correct by jinking the wheel back to the left before steering right again.

But, by this point, the AMR25 was on a trajectory that caused it to miss the apex of the corner and, despite Alonso applying more right-hand steering lock, momentum carried the car onto the kerbs. From there, he was a passenger.

Whether there was a gust of wind at the critical moment only the telemetry is likely to show, but all the drivers complained about having a headwind through the ‘S’ curves during practice. On the run into the Degners, the wind would have been blowing from right to left, and slightly to the rear of the car.

Despite this setback, Alonso remained optimistic for the rest of the Japanese weekend.

“I think we’re slightly more competitive than in China,” he said. “So hopefully Q3 is possible tomorrow.”