Unsurprisingly, while Fernando Alonso may have escaped that horrific crash at La Source last weekend scot-free, the same cannot be said of his car.

While his team will use Friday's opening session to assess whether there was damage to his engine, he has already had to revert to an older chassis. However, the Spaniard fears that there is also a shortage of latest-spec spares.

"It's a chassis I used in winter testing or the first races, so it's something that we already raced with but it is a new chassis," he told reporters at Monza. "On the engine side we think it could be OK but we will probably find out tomorrow in FP1.

"We want to put it in tomorrow to run on Friday and confirm that everything's OK. There were some concerns on Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday they checked everything properly and it seems OK so hopefully we can run still with that engine.

"But the full car, not only the chassis but also the floor, the front wing, things we are limited on parts, have gone. It was quite expensive.

"We have enough luckily but probably we'll run out of spare parts," he admitted. "We have just what we have on the car, and all the rest will probably be a different specification.

"It's quite tough because the damage on the cars was quite extreme, especially on my car, and then you have four days only to build a completely different car for Monza. It's the way it is."

The Spaniard also admitted that he still faces a grid penalty at some point because McLaren wanted to give him a new engine but opted not to do it in Belgium as the team aimed to benefit from the penalties incurred by his teammate and three others.

"Because of the penalties of Hulkenberg and Bottas and Sainz we opted not to change the engine in Spa, and benefit from the P14 starting position, and then on the first corner you're out of the race.

"You will have to pay the penalty either in this race or later on, so it's a double zero... one in Spa because of another guy, and another one when you take the penalties. So quite a sad day."

Alonso also revealed that he hurt his wrist and back in the incident.

"It's fine now," he said. "It felt on Sunday a little bit, and I'm still feeling some kind of heat there, because I had the hands on the steering wheel when I touched Leclerc. Every day it's less and less, and it should be OK for tomorrow.

"The only painful day was Tuesday," he said of his back. "On Sunday it was fine, on Monday it was OK, but on Tuesday when I woke-up I had the back, I felt a little bit sore, and a little bit of a pain there. But yesterday was fine, today was fine, so it was all OK after that."

Check out our Thursday gallery from Monza, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by VC10-1103, 31/08/2018 11:41

"Read the report again Elf Team Tyrrell. " McLaren wanted to give him a new engine but opted not to do it in Belgium as the team aimed to benefit from the penalties incurred by his teammate and three others."

"

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2. Posted by Elf Team Tyrrell, 31/08/2018 10:26

"So let me get this right......Alonso might have to take a penalty in Monza because another driver ran into the back of him and possibly damaged his engine. Nothing to do with Renault not building an engine that can last long enough to satisfy the rules or McLaren not being able to assemble the car correctly or even Alonso driving badly and causing the accident. A situation completely out of Alonso, McLaren and Renaults hands but they will have to take a penalty!!! Is it just me or does that seem absolutely ludicrous, that pretty much sums up this penalty infected sport and the current mess that modern F1 has become. "

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Alonso reverts to old chassis following Spa crash

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