Alonso experienced back pain after Belgian GP crash

Fernando Alonso has revealed he experienced back and wrist pain in the days following the huge first corner crash at the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.

Alonso’s McLaren was sent airborne over the top of Charles Leclerc’s Sauber after Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg misjudged his braking point and slammed into the back of the Spaniard.

All three drivers emerged from the dramatic incident unscathed, but Alonso said he suffered from pain in his back during the week but insisted he has recovered in time for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

“It was not too bad,” Alonso explained. “Honestly the only painful day was Tuesday. I think on Sunday was fine, on Monday was more or less OK but on Tuesday when I woke up I had my back.

“I felt a little bit sore and a little bit of a pain there. But yesterday was fine and today is fine, so it was all OK after that.”

Alonso also experienced pain in his wrists after keeping his hands on his steering wheel in the initial contact with Leclerc.

When asked if they are now better, he replied: “Yes also fine. It was on Sunday a little bit, and still feeling the heat a little bit there because I think I had the hands on the steering wheel when I touched Leclerc but every day is less and less and it should be OK for tomorrow.”

The impact completely destroyed his MCL33 car and has forced McLaren to introduce a new chassis at Monza, though Alonso believes his engine should have escaped damage.

“[It will be] a new chassis unfortunately,” Alonso confirmed. “I think it’s a chassis I used anyway in winter testing or the first races, so it’s something that we already raced with but it’s a new chassis.

“On the engine side we think it could be OK but we will probably find out tomorrow in FP1! We want to put it in tomorrow to run on Friday and confirm that everything’s OK.

“There were some concerns on Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday they checked everything properly and it seems OK so hopefully we can run still with that engine,” he added.

“But the full car, not only the chassis but also the floor, the front wing - things we are limited on parts as well - have gone. It was quite expensive.”

Alonso fears McLaren could run out of spare parts this weekend due to the quick turnaround between races in Belgium and Italy.

“We have enough luckily but probably we’ll run out of spare parts. We have just what we have on the car, and all the rest will probably be a different specification.

“It’s quite tough because the damage on the cars was quite extreme, especially on my car, and then you have four days only to build a completely different car for Monza. It’s the way it is.”

Alonso is anticipating a tough weekend ahead for McLaren at a circuit not expected to suit its 2018 challenger.

“Spa and this weekend are the most underperforming weekends of the calendar. I don’t think the situation will change dramatically from Spa last weekend, so I think it’s going to be tough for both of us,” he said.

“We’ll try to limit the damage here and hopefully we’ll find some wet qualifying or wet race or something that will give us an opportunity. But in completely dry conditions on Sunday or Saturday I think it’s going to be very difficult.”