Fernando Alonso will use a different McLaren chassis in China this weekend following his high speed crash during the Japanese grand prix last Sunday.
Not only were the reigning world champion’s hopes of securing a third drivers’ title severely dented at Fuji Speedway, but his Woking based team confirmed on Tuesday that the MP4-22 he crashed exiting turn five was too damaged to repair in Asia ahead of the penultimate race of 2007.
McLaren said a replacement chassis was despatched from England to Shanghai on the day of the crash.
“This chassis will become the spare, with Fernando using the spare chassis from Japan as his race car (in China),” the team confirmed in a statement.
Alonso’s damaged car was sent back to Woking because the “significant” damage was “not reparable at the track”, McLaren added.
“My retirement in Japan has not made it easy for me in the championship, but there are still 20 points to be won and I am going to fight hard for each one of them,” Alonso commented.
He trails teammate Lewis Hamilton by 12 points.
