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McLaren's wet weather gamble failed to come off

McLaren's wet weather gamble failed to come off

24-07-2018 12:40

McLaren opted to gamble with Fernando Alonso and put on the intermediate tyres a few minutes before the heavy rain was due to hit Hockenheim. The ran never came and gamble failed but Alonso admits they “had to try something” during the German Grand Prix to get a top 10 finish.

The Spaniard eventually retired from the race as engineers spotted something on the data. The Woking-based team have fallen to 7th place in the constructors' championship having once held 4th place in the early stages of the year. 

“It was a tricky race,” Alonso said in an interview on motorsport week. “We bet on the rain and at the first drops, we pitted for intermediate tyres, expecting that it would rain hard in the following few minutes. 

“But, it didn’t, and we were out there on a dry track with wet tyres, so we killed them and then we had to stop again to get back onto dry tyres.

“At the end of the race, the team told me to retire the car, as they probably saw something on the data.” 

The issue was confirmed as a gearbox problem for Alonso. He’ll be hoping he doesn’t need to change his gearbox as he won’t want a grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix, a race which McLaren are typically stronger at.