Fernando Alonso’s Back Ailments
On Saturday he retired in the middle of the Sprint Race of the Canadian GP due to an unspecified “seat problem“. Yet, it is a sensitive component for the driving feel of a Formula 1 driver – literally the only one, along with the steering wheel and pedals, that allows you to stay in contact with the chassis and “feel” the behavior of the car – with which Fernando Alonso has had more than a few difficulties for some time now. The Spanish driver has in fact repeatedly talked in recent years about his back ailments, probably further aggravated this season by the well-known high-speed vibrations caused by the difficult integration between his Aston Martin and the Honda power unit. To the point that the engineers have designed a secret lumbar support system for him to help endure the pain.
Read more Hamilton: “Energy management? Motorsport shouldn’t be like that”
Click here to add Formula Passion as a preferred source on Google Discover: you will find our content more easily!
The Secret of the Aston Martin Seat
Of course, these are still F1 cars, traveling at over 300 km/h just a few centimeters from the asphalt, but the daily Marca with correspondent Marco Canseco managed to identify the existence of a system of… “inflatable cushions” placed between Alonso’s back and the carbon fiber seat. According to the Spanish newspaper, Fernando has been using since he arrived at Aston Martin a special inflatable lumbar support system that is inflated through small tubes that were seen inside the garage, and then probably adjusted with a knob similar to those used in common blood pressure monitors. This is how the two-time world champion tries to relieve his back pain.
Read more Vasseur: “I don’t know if we were competitive in Canada because of the curbs or the cold”
However, the system is imperfect, as is almost natural for a rudimentary device that inflates air cushions placed between the driver and the seat: this would be the reason why the mechanics have to adjust the lumbar supports “by hand” every time Fernando Alonso gets into the car (and therefore at least once per session), not to mention the vibrations, curbs, bumps, and dips on the track that inevitably cause the secret cushions to shift even by those few crucial millimeters causing more pain to the 44-year-old from Oviedo.
“Putting an End to the Suffering”
According to Canseco’s article, this would be the reason for the retirement from the Montreal Sprint Race, with Alonso himself admitting that he accepted the team’s request to retire since he was far from the points zone and without particular chances to get closer. “Yes, we had this problem with the seat, because unfortunately I feel more and more uncomfortable as the laps go by. The position is not comfortable and we were out of the points, quite far from the points and without any threat of rain in sight. So we decided to put an end to the suffering,” concluded Fernando Alonso to Marca.
Read more Montoya: “Verstappen did not risk incidents with Hamilton because Red Bull needs points”
