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McLaren replace Alonso's chassis after Spa crash

10:45, 31 Aug 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

McLaren has changed Fernando Alonso's chassis ahead of the Italian Grand Prix after the Spaniard was caught up in the first corner crash at the Belgian Grand Prix a week ago. Alonso was hit by Nico Hulkenberg after the Renault man missed his braking by a large margin, sending the McLaren flying into the air and over Charles Leclerc's Sauber.

Although the team was able to replace the chassis without any issues, a concern over whether they will have enough spare parts is a fresh concern at the Woking-based outfit, another worry as to whether the damaged power unit could be recovered and reused was at the forefront of the team's priorities going into the race weekend.

"We want to put it on tomorrow and confirm that everything is okay," Alonso told media on Thursday.

"There were some concerns on Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday they checked everything properly and it seems okay, so hopefully we can run still with that engine."

"We have enough luckily, but probably we've run out of spare parts, we have just what we have on the car. All the rest will probably be a different specification.

"As I said, this is quite tough, because the damage on the cars was quite extreme, especially on my car. Then you have four days only to build a completely new car for Monza. It's the way it is."

Hulkenberg earned a 10-place grid penalty for the crash that had the paddock talking afterwards, Alonso being sent into the air and down onto Leclerc's car, hitting the halo device.

Alonso admitted that the crash was quite a big one for a short run to the first corner like at Spa.

"The only painful day was Tuesday. On Tuesday when I woke up I felt a little bit sore in the back.

"I’m still feeling some kind of heat (in the wrist), because I had the hands on the steering wheel when I touched Leclerc. But every day it’s less and less, and it should be OK for tomorrow."