Alonso escapes his bad luck: from abandoning for a two-euro piece, to saving the race for a lubricant

Until a few months ago, talking about Fernando Alonso and Formula 1 was impossible without mentioning the bad luck that has accompanied the Spaniard throughout his career. What if in 2008 he had signed for Red Bull? What if he had never gone to McLaren Honda? Perhaps now he would have five world championships and not two, perhaps he would seek victory number 70 and not 33, a number that has remained anchored since he climbed to the top of the podium in Barcelona 11 years ago.

But it seems that the wind takes another direction. The start of Alonso’s season with his new Aston Martin team could not be more hopeful. Three out of four podiums, third in the world standings and most importantly, with a solid car that shows few weaknesses.

One of them is the DRS. The Aston Martin, despite having Mercedes engines, has a hard time being one of the fastest on the straight. Not everything is motor. The rest of the car’s aerodynamics has a lot to do with the proper functioning of the rear wing, and the British team is currently working tirelessly on this. Last weekend, at the Azerbaijan GP, ​​they already had a more specific wing that, in theory, allowed Alonso’s car to get close to the best in top speed. But when the DRS button was activated, the rear wing did not open and the car was stuck at 325 km/h when its rivals reached 340 km/h in a straight line.

Those problems weighed down Alonso’s classification. The Asturian could only achieve a sixth place on the grid on Sunday and an eighth in the sprint held the day before. Come on, a drama. If the DRS didn’t work in the race, overtaking would be an impossible mission. But yeah, it worked. Both on Saturday and Sunday, where he signed fourth place less than a second from the podium, which was occupied by Pérez, Verstappen and Leclerc.

How did they do it? with a conventional solution. Being in parc fermé, the mechanics couldn’t change anything about the car so they opted to use some kind of lubricant. This product can be purchased at any store for less than ten euros. This was confirmed by team manager Mike Krack: “I can’t tell you, but he wasn’t far from using a WD40. We try to clean the surfaces and check the holes, everything. Happily, they hit the nail on the head.

This situation is totally different from what happened to Alonso himself a year earlier, at the Australian GP. The Asturian was fighting for pole position with his Alpine when, suddenly, in the middle of qualifying, he suffered an oil seal gasket failure. The car was immediately stopped to avoid a major breakdown and ruined what was a very promising weekend. Days later it was confirmed that that piece, which had broken, cost only two euros on the market.