Lotus driver unhappy with use of AstroTurf which was highlighted as a factor in the Spaniard's high-speed accident at Barcelona
Sunday 29 March 2015 07:14, UK
Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean have welcomed the FIA’s decision to open an investigation into the crash which hospitalised Fernando Alonso for three days.
The Spaniard was released from hospital on Wednesday but his participation in the season-opening Australian GP remains in doubt after he was ruled out of the final winter test at Barcelona.
At the request of Alonso’s McLaren team, the FIA, the sport’s governing body, is to probe the accident in order to understand its causes and what lessons can be learned from an incident which rendered the two-time world champion unconscious.
“I hope Fernando’s okay. I’m not really sure what has happened, I didn’t see it or know how hard he hit the barrier, but I’m aware that he spent more than one day in hospital, so it had to be pretty severe for that to have happened and to have a concussion,” said Hamilton.
“But it’s great that the FIA [is looking into it]. They are always very keen to try and learn and improve on things because safety is the number one priority.”
Lotus driver Grosjean added: “The FIA are looking into it and I am glad as it is moving in the right direction for safety.”
McLaren have attributed Alonso’s peculiar accident to an ‘unpredictable gust of wind’ that veered his MP4-30 car onto the Astroturf around Turn Three at the Circuit de Catalunya before the car was spat across the road and into the trackside wall.
“I don’t know if he went on the AstroTurf on the exit – I hate that surface because when you get on it either you lose the car or it stays straight. I think we can be happy that he has left the hospital and we can learn how to get the driver safety higher when it is a side-on impact,” Grosjean told reporters.
“There are a few places where you really don’t want to go on the AstroTurf – 130R at Suzuka, the long Turn Eight in Austin where they added AstroTurf last year that wasn’t there the year before. It is a trade-off between stopping the car leaving the track and of course safety. But so far it is the best we have and sometimes we can cross it more than others, like in India, but there are other places that you just don’t want to use it.”
Many trackside figures have been surprised that Alonso was knocked out in an accident which, by F1’s standards, was relatively passive with the MP4-30 left largely unscathed.
“But that is the problem,” explained Grosjean. “If you hit sideways, the wishbones and so on are not made to break that way. They will not bend, it is carbon so it either breaks or stays in one piece and if it stays in one piece the energy has to go somewhere and that is the driver.”
