Fernando Alonso explained how he was left unable to communicate with his Aston Martin team early in Bahrain FP2.

And when the steering wheel came off in Alonso‘s hands, that is when they realised that a major mechanical problem was afoot.

Fernando Alonso had ‘a moment’ as steering wheel made bid for freedom

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Alonso’s Bahrain Grand Prix race weekend started at FP2, having sat out the opening hour of practice to give Felipe Drugovich a rookie FP1 outing, Aston Martin using the first of their four such sessions, with all teams mandated to run a rookie driver in four FP1 sessions during F1 2025.

And when Alonso returned to the Aston Martin cockpit for FP2, he quickly encountered an issue, one which grew in severity when his steering wheel went from sporting a blank dashboard, to disengaging in his hands as he entered the final corner.

Thankfully driving slowly into what is normally a high-speed right hander, Alonso was able to go into the run-off area, push the wheel back onto the steering column and head back to the Aston Martin garage for repairs.

As that process began, the FIA’s technical delegate Jo Baeur headed down to the Aston Martin garage to investigate.

And speaking after FP2, Alonso was asked what went on with that steering wheel.

“Yeah, the car was not working and I could not shift gears at one point,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “I had the dash off, so I could not communicate with the team either.

“And yeah, in the last corner, the wheel was off, so yeah, we realised that maybe the steering column or the wheel or something had a problem.

“The mechanics quickly changed the parts and everything was fine. So yeah, a moment there, but yeah, thanks to everyone in the garage to fix it quite fast.”

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With a wheel which stayed attached to his Aston Martin, Alonso was able to finish FP2 in 15th place, with team-mate Lance Stroll P19.

And the two-time World Champion explained that Bahrain is not a track which Aston Martin held high hopes for going into the event.

“I think it’s going to be a tough weekend,” Alonso predicted. “Unfortunately, we seem not to have the pace.

“Before coming here, the characteristics of Bahrain was a little bit of a concern for us, for our package, and, yeah, probably we confirm it today that we are not competitive.

“So yeah, it’s going to be a tough weekend, but we will try to learn. We try to push, and we are not giving up. The race is long on Sunday.”

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