Fernando Alonso lucky to avoid “massive crash” after brake failure in China
A brake issue curtailed his race after just four laps.
Fernando Alonso considers himself fortunate to have avoided a “massive crash” after the brakes on his Aston Martin Formula 1 car failed in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Alonso was circulating in the midfield at the start of lap four in Shanghai when the rear brake temperature suddenly shot up on the start/finish straight.
TV images captured smoke pouring out of the hobbled Aston Martin, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly even reported a brake fire as he passed the Spaniard on track.
The Spaniard was able to slow the car down and nurse it back to the pitlane where, after a precautionary stop, the Silverstone-based team decided to retire him from the race.
It marked Alonso’s second DNF in as many races at the start of 2025, having crashed out the Australian GP just a week earlier.
But the 43-year-old said his appearance in the Chinese GP could have ended in much more dramatic circumstances had he suffered the brake issue at a more dangerous part of the track.
“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,” said the Spaniard.
“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.”
Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll scored an under-the-radar sixth-place finish in Melbourne and followed that with a ninth-place result in Shanghai.
The 10 points the Canadian has scored so far has allowed Aston to grab seventh place in the championship, ahead of Sauber, Racing Bulls and Alpine.
However, even as Aston’s focus remains on the new regulation in 2026, Stroll admitted that the team needs to improve the AMR25 to score points consistently for the rest of the year.
“No, I think we have a lot to work on, for sure, if we want to finish in the points comfortably going forward.”
