Fernando Alonso Declared Unfit For Bahrain GP

 

Fernando Alonso has been ruled out of the Bahrain GP after fracturing his ribs in his horror Australian GP crash. The Spaniard was ruled unfit to race by an FIA medical assessment on Thursday in Bahrain and later admitted it is not 100 per cent certain he will return to action in China in two weeks' time. McLaren reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne will take Alonso's place this weekend for his F1 debut.

Explaining the timeline of his condition since his Melbourne accident on March 20, Alonso said “I was okay on Sunday[after the race, some knee pain, but not big things. I had the green light from the doctors to leave the track and everything was okay. On Monday, I had a little bit of overall pain, but nothing too serious. Then I flew back to Spain and the pain was similar or a little bit more, so we decided to do a check - a CT scan. I had a small pneumothorax on the lung, so we took the advice from the doctors to relax at home and make everything come to normal, and we repeated the scan on Monday. The pneumothorax is gone but I have some rib fractures, so because of that there is a risk of driving because Formula 1 is a unique sport, a unique position on the car, and with the G-forces the fracture could move into the lung as well”

Alonso had a huge accident in Melbourne where his car barrel rolled through the Turn Three gravel trap after colliding with the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez. The sensors on-board the McLaren are reported to have recorded a peak force of 47G. He appeared to slightly limp as he visited the Bahrain International Circuit's medical centre on Thursday morning where his condition was assessed ahead of the weekend's running.

Despite being forced to sit out the weekend, Alonso says he will remain in Bahrain to help Vandoorne on the reigning GP2 champion's F1 debut, while also assessing McLaren's car updates and the impact of F1's new-for-2016 rules. He said “I've been very lucky all my career, this is my 16th F1 year and it's normal you have accidents here and there. Unfortunately it's happened twice in the last few years that I miss a race. Australia was quite a big impact so I knew it was risky to race here in Bahrain.  The team did a fantastic job preparing the car for this weekend so I wanted to at least try but I understand the position. It's a good opportunity for Stoffel. I love F1 and racing but I want to learn from the outside also, how the team prepare the race, the strategy, the pitstops”

Vandoorne had been testing in Japan ahead of the Super Formula season and is flying to Bahrain. He had already been due to fly to Bahrain on Friday to serve as reserve driver for the weekend.