Fernando Alonso Reveals He Performed With Broken Bones in 2022; Could Be Inspiration for Lance Stroll To Return Amidst Injury

Fernando Alonso is known to be one of the most passionate Formula 1 drivers on the grid. Before his return to the sport in 2021, he met with a bike accident where he broke his jaw, and despite not recovering fully, he opted to appear for Alpine.

Last year was not better too. During the Australian GP qualifying, the Spaniard obtained an injury on his hand and reportedly broke some bones. Though he didn’t miss a race, he reveals he performed in four races until the Monaco GP with broken bones.

“In my case, I broke a few bones in both hands last year,” revealed Alonso during the Bahrain GP Press conference. “So, until August, I was not fully recovered. I had some pain, but we love driving!”

This comment comes after Lance Stroll surprised everyone in the paddock by landing in Bahrain for the weekend race. The Canadian race driver had a wrist injury during his preseason preparation after meeting a bike accident.

Also read: Former F1 Boss Bernie Ecclestone Lashes Out at Liberty Media for Running After American Money

Is Lance Stroll taking inspiration?

Stroll was announced to be unavailable for the Bahrain GP, and there were also doubts about his availability for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. But he showed a usual F1 driver trait: never to give their seat to anyone.

And when he is partnering with a race driver who can risk affecting his hand amidst an injury, he wouldn’t want to be behind and would be taking inspiration from Alonso. Nevertheless, Stroll completed a whole race distance on a sim setup and reported no trouble.

On the other hand, Alonso also seems to be impressed by Stroll’s reappearance on the grid, as the two-time world champion claims it displays the 23-year-old’s dedication.

However, Stroll has no experience with the 2023 Aston Martin. Though, he is aware of the Bahrain International circuit. So he most probably would have to rely on the three practice sessions.

 No instant success for Aston Martin

After the three-day testing camp in Bahrain, several F1 experts have been hyping Aston Martin to rise in the standings unprecedentedly. F1 presenter Ted Kravitz even predicted the Silverstone-based team would have ended on the podium if the preseason test was the Bahrain Grand Prix.

However, Alonso is playing down the expectations. The 41-year-old claims that cracking into the top three only in one winter is unrealistic, especially when they were even lapping the fourth-best team cars during the races.

Former performance engineer of Force India and Redbull, Blake Hensey about Aston Martin

“The pace is real, it is really impressive and it is hard to fake that”

In addition he analyses the tire degradation and AMR23 actually have the so called negative degradation pic.twitter.com/hd9EOMzh2O

— Aston Martin F1 updates (@startonpole) March 1, 2023

So, he thinks that even though his team would try to have the best race possible on Sunday, it’s unlikely to get a podium. And that’s also not their primary goal.

Also read: If Max Verstappen Continues Brazilian GP Selfishness, Sergio Perez Claims to Abandon His Support for Third Title Push

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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