Tear-off visor the likely cause of Fernando Alonso's brake failure
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...barcelona-test
A tear-off visor appears to be to blame for Fernando Alonso's brake failure at the Spanish Grand Prix, which saw him come close to running over his pit crew and resulted in his retirement from the race.
McLaren identified the issue during Alonso's second stint and called him in for a pit stop to change tyres and investigate. When he arrived in the pits the brakes failed to stop the car and the front-jack man had to leap out of the way as his equipment flying was sent flying. Mechanics later discovered a tear-off visor covering the right-rear brake duct, which likely led to the brakes overheating and failing.
"It was scary for the guys but luckily we didn't hurt anyone and the team were very fast with their reaction so next time hopefully everything works fine, " Alonso said. "We had no brakes for the whole in-lap but then on the pit stop, even less, so it was deteriorating but everything was fine."
Alonso said the issue was separate to the ones he faced in qualifying yesterday and that now McLaren must make "double steps" to keep up with a challenging season ahead.
"Today was a new problem. Yesterday it was one disc - it was not getting temperature - and today I had no brakes - so it's different, definitely. It was the rear disc - it stopped working - so I only had front brakes, which meant I had to retire the car. I couldn't brake in the corners and I couldn't even brake in the pit."
Speaking on his retirement, the crowd favourite added: "It was a disappointment but there's nothing we can do now just prepare and do an investigation in what happened to the brakes and in Monaco come back stronger."
The double world champion completed 26 laps in the race before he retired from what proved to be another difficult weekend for McLaren.