Spanish driver Fernando Alonso has passed yet another unfortunate F1 race at the Chinese GP. The two-time World Champion had to retire early from the race due to a brake failure on his Aston Martin challenger and recorded his second DNF at the second race weekend of the 2025 season.
A super scary failure with the brakes
Alonso stated in an interview that the brakes were already overheated from the beginning of the Sunday race. Starting from P13, he could only continue 4 laps into the race. His brake pedal going to the bottom forced him to retire the car.
Two races into the 2025 F1 season, the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix, respectively, Fernando Alonso has been struggling with DNFs, while his teammate Lance Stroll secured points for Aston Martin in both races with P6 and P9 standings.
“The brakes apparently were really hot since the beginning of the race, and then by Lap 3 or Lap 4 I went on the brakes in Turn 1 and the pedal went to the bottom of the chassis, and that was super scary.”
Lucky enough to avoid a massive crash
The Spaniard explained how the timing of the failure at Turn 1 prevented a massive crash from taking place. He mentioned that he would have taken at least 4 cars in front of him if his brake pedal had stopped working in Turn 14.
Therefore, the 40-year-old expressed that he feels thankful and lucky that his unfortunate situation did not induce greater chaos. After retiring from the race, Fernando Alonso channeled his attention initially to understand what went wrong with his car and further overcome its problems to see the chequered flag in the Japanese Grand Prix.
“Luckily Turn 1 is a corner that you just downshift and go into the corner. If that happens in Turn 14 or wherever, I think it could be a massive crash because I would take four or five cars in front of me out of the race.
“For an unlucky situation I think we were lucky today to [not] hit any car in front of us, and now let’s try to understand what happened and try to see the first chequered flag in Japan.”
Shanghai’s pace was better than Melbourne’s
Reflecting on Saturday’s Sprint race P10 result, the veteran admitted that the pace of the car in Shanghai was better compared to Melbourne.
Now, Fernando Alonso’s main focus is improving his F1 challenger to garner essential points for his team in the upcoming challenges of the 2025 season.
“Probably. I think we have to see now in the race, especially with Lance [Stroll], what we can do.
“I think we were a little bit better than in Australia, I think in race pace, in the Sprint and hopefully today with Lance, and let’s try to keep improving the car.”
