McLaren have identified the cause of Fernando Alonso’s Spanish Grand Prix brake failure which caused him to overshoot his pit-box by several metres.
A visor tear-off was lodged in the rear brake duct of his MP4-30, causing it to overheat and eventually fail, leaving the Spaniard with only his front brakes operational as he entered the pits.
“It was a tear-off, and we have video footage that shows this,” racing director Eric Boullier told Autosport.
WHAT IS A VISOR TEAR-OFF?
A driver’s helmet has several layers of clear (or sometimes tinted) film over the visor which they can remove, one-by-one, to clear any dirt which might be impeding their view.
“It went straight into the brake duct, obstructing the airflow, so there was no more cooling and that was why, in two laps, the temperatures went through the roof.
“The brake fluid boiled and we lost the brakes, so it was a complete fluke the tear-off should get lodged in there.”
A similar thing happened to Kimi Raikkonen at the 2013 Belgian GP when a visor tear-off blocked his front brake duct, causing him to retire from that race.
Boullier is therefore concerned that it could repeat itself in future, and with Alonso’s front jack-man narrowly avoiding injury, the Frenchman says it needs looking at in future.
“Obviously the drivers need them, but we need to maybe think about how and where we throw them. Maybe we need to think about something for the future.”
