Fernando Alonso will have Aston Martin’s AMR23 all to himself during tomorrow’s second day of pre-season testing, the team has confirmed.
Alonso’s team mate, Lance Stroll, is missing the only pre-season test in Bahrain after injuring his hand after a cycling accident while training for the new season. Aston Martin reserve driver, Felipe Drugovich, participated in the early session in the car before Alonso took over for the evening session.Aston Martin have announced Alonso will run in both of tomorrow’s sessions and will decide how they will allocate their final day’s running on Saturday at a later point.
Earlier today, team principal Mike Krack said Aston Martin will make any decision as to whether they need to call on Drugovich or their other reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne to replace Stroll during next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix “in time”.
“He was training, trying to improve or to work on his fitness last week, so he was cycling and he had a small incident and hurt himself,” Krack explained. “For precautionary reasons, we decided it’s better to wait a little bit and be ready next week.
“This is personal thing,” said Krack. “He’s injured on the hand, on the wrist, but I don’t want to go into detail because this is also his privacy.”
Aston Martin completed 100 laps over the course of the day. Drugovich covered the fewest of any driver with 40 after suffering an electrical problem early in the afternoon session. Alonso managed more than a race distance’s worth with 60 laps in the car, and set the second-quickest time behind Max Verstappen.
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Qeki (@qeki)
23rd February 2023, 19:07
Wise decision
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd February 2023, 19:25
Unsurprising move concerning tomorrow’s run plan, & while I can understand the privacy argument per se, I think a better approach would’ve been to either be wholly truthful or say nothing in the first place.
ajpennypacker (@ajpennypacker)
24th February 2023, 4:47
Yeah, I don’t really get the secrecy around these things. It only serves to fuel speculation about the seriousness of the injury or the circumstances in which it happened.
I remember when it happened to Alonso a couple of years ago, there was wild speculation but pretty soon the story was told and then rumors died right there.
Frasier (@frasier)
23rd February 2023, 19:58
Guessing scaphoid fracture. Classic cycling injury when the rider uses their hand to break a fall. Sub-optimal for driving a car with heavy steering.
Mog
23rd February 2023, 20:09
Also needs casting or splinting for 6-8 weeks
amian
23rd February 2023, 20:14
Formula 1 cars don’t have heavy steering though.
Wes
23rd February 2023, 21:39
Sure they have power steering but that doesn’t mean a broken hand is going to be able to drive on the limit for 70 laps. Even with power steering the amount of energy someone has to produce through their arms and hands is no simple feat. There’s a reason F1 drivers have to be very fit and much of that is in the hands and arms holding on to the steering. They still have to fight against the g-forces pushing their whole body the opposite way they are turning.
Frasier (@frasier)
24th February 2023, 10:13
True, and then there’s the vibration. When I broke a tib/fib that was the thing that was really painful just as a passenger in a car. Frustrating that my injury more or less coincided with Michael Schumacher and Mick Doohan doing the same. They broke the bones after me but were back doing their thing way early than I was. Hyperbaric chambers and the best medical care care helps of course.
MacLeod (@macleod)
24th February 2023, 0:05
two broken wrists but it could be a crack … (information from Will Buxton)
Todfod (@todfod)
24th February 2023, 5:24
If it’s a fracture, there’s no way he’ll be in the cockpit within 6 weeks time. If it’s a ligament tear, it would probably take him a month to get back in the cockpit, but a full recovery could take longer.
Either ways, I think he’ll probably miss the first two race weekends.
joe jopling (@jop452)
24th February 2023, 13:52
The fact that they describe it as a wrist injury….is telling us it is a fracture of some sort….otherwise they would just say its sprained and should be no problem…..bring back Seb!!!