Fernando Alonso will not take part in media day duties at the Mexican Grand Prix after the 43-year-old was struck down with illness, Aston Martin have confirmed.
The Spaniard is heading into a landmark weekend with Sunday’s race representing his 400th Grand Prix entry in the series. This figure is the highest of any driver in history with Kimi Raikkonen the next in line with 353.
Aston Martin released a statement on Thursday, reading: “Fernando Alonso is feeling unwell and will therefore not attend media day at the Mexican Grand Prix. Fernando is focused on feeling 100% for Friday and his planned return to the AMR24 for Free Practice Two.”
Alonso will enjoy an extra bit of respite as he recovers from illness with Aston Martin test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich stepping behind the wheel of his AMR24 for his first FP1 appearance of the campaign.
“I’m really excited to drive the AMR24 for the first time – I’ve been looking forward to it for a while,” explained the Brazilian. “I’ve spent a lot of the year working on the development of this car in the team’s simulator, so it will be valuable for me to feel the correlation between the sim and the real thing.
“Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a track I haven’t driven before. It’s a challenging circuit with a mix of long straights and technical corners, so I’ll be spending time on the simulator ahead of the event so that I’m ready to go come FP1.”
When Alonso does get back behind the wheel he likely faces another difficult weekend. Aston Martin brought fresh upgrades to Austin last time out but struggled for pace and left the United States Grand Prix pointless.
Despite Alonso and Lance Stroll finishing in P13 and P15 respectively, Aston Martin weren’t totally dismayed. “I think they (the upgrades) have generally done what we expected they would do,” explained performance director Tom McCullough. “As you know, it’s a relative game.
“I think eight teams brought upgrades, and the other two can still bring them. This is Formula One, nobody stays still. We are making the car faster, just like the others. So we have to keep working to develop the car every day to overtake the teams ahead.”
