Alonso Blames Locked Steering For Crash

Fernando Alonso has contradicted McLaren's official explanation for his accident in testing, insisting the crash was caused by locked steering.

Speaking ahead of his F1 return at this weekend’s Malaysia GP, the Spaniard said he remembered everything about the crash at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on 22 February and rubbished claims he woke up believing the year was 1995 after being knocked out.

More dramatically, the McLaren driver also flatly denied the team's announcement that a gust of wind was to blame for the loss of control and said he believed the steering locked on his MP4-30.

"It's clear that there was a problem in the car," said Alonso.

Speaking to the media for the first time since the accident on his return to the paddock at Sepang, Alonso was asked to confirm whether the crash at the high-speed Turn Three right-hand corner was caused by driver error or an unpredictable gust of wind.

"No, definitely not," he replied."I don’t know if you’ve seen the video, but even a hurricane will not move the car at that speed.

"Also, if you have any problem or any medical issue normally you will lose the power and go straight to the outside, never to the inside. In a Formula One car you still need to apply some effort to the steering wheel."

Alonso's car bumped and grazed the inside wall exiting Turn Three before coming to a halt. He was taken to the track's medical centre before being transferred by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where he stayed for three nights.

Recounting the specifics of the crash, Alonso suggested his steering wheel "locked" as he rounded the corner, which sent him onto the collision course with the wall.

He admitted, however, that McLaren couldn't be sure what caused the problem due to the immaturity of the technology monitoring that part of the car. Even so, they have now fitted an extra sensor.

"There is not anything clear in the data that we can spot and can say 'it was that', but definitely we had a steering problem in the middle of Turn Three that locked into the right. I approached the wall, I braked in the last moment, I downshifted from fifth to third and unfortunately on the data we're still missing some parts," he said.

"Probably also the acquisition data on that particular area of the car is not at the top, so there are some new sensors here at this race and some changes that we do on the steering rack and other parts.

"The last week at the factory was more work on the simulator and trying to explain all these new sensors and new parts that will go into this race."

Although the circumstances of the accident have provoked much confusion, Alonso said: "The wind, maybe other possibilities, and that creates a bit of confusion obviously, but you cannot say nothing for three or four days until I remember everything because these three or four days would become even worse. So I think they said the theory of the wind et cetera, but obviously it was not a help."

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis also told the media in the days after Alonso's accident that the 33-year-old "was unconscious for a relatively short period of time" after the impact with the wall.

However, the driver himself has said the only time he lost consciousness was after being administered medication for his transportation to hospital, something the doctors told him was normal.

"Everything was more or less a normal concussion. I went to the hospital in good condition," he said.

"There is a time I don't remember in the hospital, from two o'clock to six o'clock or something like that, but everything again was normal due to the medication that they give you to go into the helicopter and do some tests in the hospital.

"Then everything was normal. I didn't wake up in '95. I didn't wake up speaking in Italian. I didn't wake up in all these things that probably were out there [in the media]. I remember the accident and I remember everything that following day."