Although both drivers were unharmed, the accident between Stroll and Alonso in Austin took the breath away of all those who followed the race live, as the Spaniard crashed into the rear of the Canadian’s Aston Martin and was thrown, over two wheels, for several moments until he ended up against the barriers.
Although he considered that it was not his fault and that what happened was more of a career setback, Stroll received a penalty that he will have to serve this weekend. For his part, Alonso managed to continue and got a very creditable seventh place, which he later lost after a penalty for having rolled with the rear-view mirror hanging and then without a mirror for the rest of the race.
In the post-race program on F1’s own platform, F1.TV ( and which can be seen here on YouTube in English ), journalist, engineer and technical analyst Sam Collins highlighted some details about the accident, and estimated that Fernando Alonso rose from the ground at the speed of a passenger plane, specifically the famous Boeing 747 .
In fact, he believes that Lance Stroll was the one who saw the movement that the Spaniard was going to make and reacted based on it. “Lance looks to the left, presumably into his rearview mirror. If you zoom in a bit, you can see what happens next: something hits the rear of the car. We know what it is: Fernando Alonso’s Alpine, trying to overtake “, he detailed.
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
“Stroll moves to the left to cover the inside of the faster Alpine, but his rear wheel ends up launching Alonso, who comes up behind much faster. You can also see him riding on two wheels for a short period of time and that its nose reaches a very high point. That’s because the data shows that it was going 296 km/h with the nose pointed to the sky. That’s the speed of a Boeing 747 taking off.”
The analyst also made reference to the Cessna 172 Skyhawk , a small plane with capacity for four passengers. “It was faster than the takeoff speed of a Cessna 172, which can take off from the ground at 177 km/h. The wing surface of that plane is very similar to the ground of the Alpine. It must have been a pretty scary moment for Alonso,” Collins concludes.
And it was. Alonso himself celebrated having come out safe and sound and admits that he was scared.
