Fernando Alonso revealed he injured his shoulder during the Brazilian Grand Prix and said it still has not fully healed.

At 43, Alonso will be more susceptible to injuries but his mentality has seen him push through even while he has had physical issues.

Fernando Alonso reveals shoulder injury from Brazil GP

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Alonso’s first health struggles came to light in Mexico where he missed media day due to a throat infection but the nature of F1 meant he had little time to recover.

Having gone from Mexico to Brazil with many of the same symptoms, he then picked up a shoulder injury from the bumpy nature of the Interlagos circuit.

“I had this infection that I was dealing with,” he told media including PlanetF1.com in Abu Dhabi.

“Then when I was okay, like in Brazil, we had this super bumpy track, and then we had a lot of bouncing on our car on that weekend and I damaged a little bit the shoulder as well.

“I have a little bit [of an] injury here that was being treated up to Vegas.

“In Vegas, I was much better, and here I am 99% but it was that period of the year that was a little bit annoying, with some fever and some infection, antibiotics, all these things that put down your immune system.

“But this is the way it is. And you cannot choose when you get ill and yet, hopefully next year, I’ll be more prepared physically.”

2024 has been largely forgettable for Alonso with Aston Martin failing to reach the heights of last season. With one more race to go, the Spanaird admitted he was glad it was over.

“I’m happy that it’s over. I think it’s a very long season for everybody, for the mechanics, for everyone in the team,” he said. “24 races is ultra demanding, especially the last triple that we did.

“I think when the championship is also over, like Max [Verstappen] won in Vegas, for us it is probably after summer.

“We were fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, no threats from behind, nothing to do in front of us.

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“So the remaining seven or eight races are a little bit long because you are fighting for nothing. We tried to learn about the car for next year’s project. But apart from that, there is not much to do.

“I’m happy to take the winter break now and start from zero next year and hopefully be more competitive.”

Asked how the team would rate themselves for the year, Alonso said it could not be too high as they had not matched expectations,

“We’ve been fighting with the tools we had on track, and I think we maximised the results. I think to secure fifth place is the minimum that we had to do in terms of expectations and after what we had last year. So I’m happy to finish at least in the minimum requirements.

“But we were hoping for more, especially at the beginning of the year, we started strong, and there were a couple of upgrades coming to the car that we were dreaming to finish high on the season, and maybe fighting for podiums or something. And we didn’t achieve that.

“That’s the reality. So we were expecting a little bit more. But this is what it is and hopefully next year we can achieve that.”

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