Fernando Alonso acknowledged he has been dealing with an injury after failing to finish his second consecutive race to begin the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The 43-year-old Spaniard has yet to score a point and was forced to retire four laps into Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix. Alonso revealed afterwards he has been coping with a neck injury.
"I was wearing neck protection because I've had a pinched nerve or something these past few days," he told Spanish media, according to The Mirror. "But in the end, it didn't help much because I didn't do many laps.
"We had a brake issue. The rear brakes were very hot from the first lap and on the last one before retiring, I hit the brakes into turn one and the pedal went all the way down with no braking power."
The two-time world champion has not won a race since 2013 and is seeking an elusive 33rd career F1 victory. Alonso sits at the bottom of the driver standings with four others who have yet to register a point, and he is 10 points behind Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll.
Alonso crashed out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and said he was "lucky" to have not taken out other cars when his car began to fail in Shanghai.
The Aston Martin team has a few weeks to address issues with Alonso's car before the next race in Japan on April 5, which begins a stretch of three consecutive race weeks.
"We need to understand what happened and next is a triple-header," Alonso said. "Hopefully I can see the checkered flag for the first time this year and we can turn things around in Japan."
Struggling Fernando Alonso dealing with neck injury
Image: Clive Mason/Getty Images
Fernando Alonso acknowledged he has been dealing with an injury after failing to finish his second consecutive race to begin the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The 43-year-old Spaniard has yet to score a point and was forced to retire four laps into Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix. Alonso revealed afterwards he has been coping with a neck injury.
"I was wearing neck protection because I've had a pinched nerve or something these past few days," he told Spanish media, according to The Mirror. "But in the end, it didn't help much because I didn't do many laps.
"We had a brake issue. The rear brakes were very hot from the first lap and on the last one before retiring, I hit the brakes into turn one and the pedal went all the way down with no braking power."
The two-time world champion has not won a race since 2013 and is seeking an elusive 33rd career F1 victory. Alonso sits at the bottom of the driver standings with four others who have yet to register a point, and he is 10 points behind Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll.
Alonso crashed out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and said he was "lucky" to have not taken out other cars when his car began to fail in Shanghai.
The Aston Martin team has a few weeks to address issues with Alonso's car before the next race in Japan on April 5, which begins a stretch of three consecutive race weeks.
"We need to understand what happened and next is a triple-header," Alonso said. "Hopefully I can see the checkered flag for the first time this year and we can turn things around in Japan."
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