Alonso 'will be fit for F1 season' says Dennis
February 25, 2015
McLaren-Honda race team chairman Ron Dennis said on Thursday that he believes Fernando Alonso will be passed fit to race in the first Grand Prix of the Formula One season in Australia next month.
Alonso left hospital in Barcelona on Wednesday, three days after suffering concussion and being airlifted to hospital following a crash in pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He has since returned to his family's home in Spain for further rest and recuperation.
"He is completely lucid,” Dennis said. “He wants to drive and test, but the doctors said 'if you want him to go to Australia it's best to rest him'.'"
A statement from McLaren-Honda on Wednesday said Alonso would be sitting out this week's final winter test, at which he was due to share driving duties with Jenson Button.
Dennis said that Alonso did briefly loose consciousness and experience "some loss of memory" after the crash, but that there had been no lasting ill-affects.
"He had a completely clear CT scan and a completely clear MRI, and through no stage of his hospital stay was there any indication of damage to his brain," Dennis said. "He is not even concussed. The technical definition of a concussion you can see in a scan."
The McLaren-Honda boss added that data retrieved from the car has ruled out a malfunction and repeated the team's theory that gusting winds caused Alonso to lose control and slam into a wall at a speed of up to 240 kilometers an hour (150 mph).
The 33-year-old was world champion with Renault in 2005 and 2006 and, after five seasons at Ferrari, returned for a second spell at McLaren-Honda at the end of last season.
The Formula One season starts with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 15.
jh/pwh (afp, dpa)