What Went Wrong for Fernando Alonso and his Indy 500 Bid

Formula One double world champion, Fernando Alonso was gutted to miss out on a chance to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Now, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has opened up on the series of mistakes that culminated in Alonso’s failure to qualify for this year’s Indy 500.

According to a report by the Associated Press, it was a “comedy of errors” that led to the disaster. Fernando Alonso was right on the bubble and looked like he could just about squeeze in, until Kyle Kaiser spoiled the party.

The report said that McLaren’s opening test at the Texas Motor Speedway was delayed due to a lack of steering wheels for Alonso’s car. The car’s livery was the wrong shade of orange and had to be recoloured.

When Fernando Alonso crashed the main car in practice, the spare was indisposed and it cost them two days of track time. In the meantime, their rivals had spare cars on standby. Another nail the the coffin was confusion between inches and metres, so Alonso’s car was scraping along the floor.

Finally, the cherry on top was the setup, where the incorrect gear ratios were given. What this meant was that Alonso’s top speed was 227.9 mph when it had the potential to do 229 mph.

Ahead of Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, Brown confessed the same, but he clarified a few elements.

“Everything that was said was correct, but let me give a little context around things like the steering wheel, because it’s not like we showed up to the test and went ‘someone forgot the steering wheel,'” he said. “We were going to do our own steering wheel, and we didn’t get it done in time.

“You need a steering wheel. Cosworth, you can buy them off the shelf, but they didn’t have any on the shelf, so I had to pull some favours, and Carlin helped to get us a steering wheel. So everything in there was factual, but as you can imagine, there’s a story behind all of those elements.

He continued, “It’s not like we unpacked the bags and we forgot a steering wheel, that’s not what happened. Everything in there, I thought it was important. I share what happened. It’s tough, because I know it opens yourself up for a lot of criticism, but when you don’t perform, I think a good CEO stands up and takes accountability and responsibility for it.”

According to Brown, the delay in Texas set the tone for their ultimate failure, and they could not recover.