McLaren will strip Fernando Alonso’s MP4-22 McLaren car at its Woking factory this week in a bid to get to the bottom of the Spaniard’s lack of pace in qualifying and on Sunday at the Bahrain GP.
The reigning double world champion lagged the pace of his rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton at the Sakhir circuit, leaving him fifth at the flag and only jointly leading the drivers’ championship.
But according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo, it is possible that an incident in the Mercedes-powered team’s garage on Friday night literally put a dent in Alonso’s podium ambition.
Although he himself played down the possible effect on his car’s speed of the incident at the time, it is true that some parts at the front of the single seater had to be replaced on Saturday morning after a lighting gantry fell from the ceiling of the garage.
‘El Mundo’ said only the front wing of Alonso’s car was changed but it is now thought that the entire monocoque might need to be scrapped prior to the upcoming Spanish GP.
Alonso will also be given two of the three days of the upcoming Barcelona test to get to the bottom of the problem. His impressive rookie Lewis Hamilton will test for only one day, we have learned.
Alonso told La Gazzetta dello Sport: “Maybe a mistake was made while re-assembling the car after that mishap.
“The fact is the car had a strange behaviour from then on.”
