By role
September 18 2003

It is no secret that Mike Gascoyne is a big fan of Fernando Alonso. The outspoken Technical Director has declared numerous times that he sees on Alonso something very few drivers have. Fernando Alonso only was able to score a point at the Italian GP in Monza. After winning the Hungarian GP from pole position Alonso had to settle for being last on the grid due to an electrical failure that affected his Traction Control.

The team decided to maintain Alonso on the grid and start from there as his Launch Control (LC) is one of the best, if not the best, in the grid.

However, Jos Verstappen had to take an avoiding maneuver in order not to hit the struggling Jaguar of Justin Wilson. This meant that Alonso could not avoid the car of Jos Verstappen and his car hit Verstappen hard.

"I certainly thought the race was over at that point," commented Technical Director Mike Gascoyne. "Like many people, I was surprised to see him get the car back to the pits, but after the team had checked it over, we decided the damage was little enough to send him back out." Crucially, Fernando was also switched on to a one-stop strategy. "That was when he went racing, Fernando-style."

The Spaniard started to put very competitive times with a full fuel tank and a damaged car with a damaged undertray and a very poor handling, he was being 2 seconds faster than Fisichella, the driver preceding him, though the Italian was still 45 seconds in front of the Spaniard.

He then missed the Roggia chicane and his car went up the air once again braking the bargeboards:

"We radioed Fernando to check everything was OK, he said yes, so we let him continue racing," explained Mike. "The car had clearly been damaged, but looking at the lap-times, he didn't seem to notice."

At the end of lap 1, he was over a minute behind Nick Heidfeld, he was able to overtake Heidfield for eighth position on the last lap. He also made up a minute on seventh-place finisher Mark Webber, and forty-five seconds on Jacques Villeneuve, as well as setting eighth-fastest lap only over one second slower than race winner Michael Schumacher.

So how much was he slowed for the damage made to the car?

"It's impossible to say," said Mike. "We don't usually test with only half the parts on the car, so we don't have any way of comparing it! What is clear, though, is that Fernando's drive was a good education for any young driver: he didn't give up at all, reeled in the cars ahead of him and got past the Sauber on the last lap to score a point. Apart from the mistake at the chicane, it was another immaculate performance."