Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso will miss 2015’s opening Grand Prix in Australia after suffering concussion in a crash, his McLaren team said Tuesday.
Doctors recommended that the 33-year-old Spaniard sit out the race as he recovers from the smash during testing in Barcelona on February 22.
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Jenson Button and reserve driver Kevin Magnussen will get the McLaren Honda cars for the March 15 race in Melbourne.
McLaren remain hopeful that Alonso will be cleared to race in the second Grand Prix of the season in Malaysia on March 29.
The Spaniard crashed into a wall when he ran wide on the final day of the second pre-season test.
It will be tough not to be in Australia, but I understand the recommendations. A second impact in less than 21 days “NO” #countdownMalaysia
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) March 3, 2015
He had to be airlifted to hospital under sedation and spent three nights there. Alonso sat out the final test session in Barcelona last week to rest and recuperate at home in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo.
A team statement said Alonso’s doctors recommended that after the concussion, “for the time being he should seek to limit as far as is possible any environmental risk factors that could potentially result in his sustaining another concussion so soon after his previous one.”
McLaren said it was normal procedure for athletes to “minimise the chances of second impact syndrome.”
The 33-year-old has only just begun his second spell with the Woking-based team after an ill-fated one-season stint in 2007 when McLaren were expelled from the constructors’ championship and fined a record $100 million for spying on confidential technical information from Ferrari.
On top of Alonso’s crash, McLaren have endured significant reliability problems in testing with their new Honda-powered MP4-30 car.
The team’s racing director Eric Boullier admitted on Saturday that it may take until the fifth Grand Prix of the season in Barcelona for McLaren to be realistically competitive at the front of the grid.
