Story highlights
Spaniard escaped unhurt after 200 mph crash
Chest scans show insufficient recovery
He will be assessed again before China GP
Fernando Alonso will not race in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix on medical grounds following his horror crash at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard’s McLaren car slammed into the track wall in Melbourne at 200 mph after colliding with Esteban Gutierrez’s machine before barrel rolling twice.
The wreckage landed upside down on the gravel – but although 34-year-old Alonso emerged unscathed, the two-time world champion has not recovered sufficiently to be able to take part in the race in Sakhir.
World motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, said Alonso had been examined in Bahrain Thursday, when it was decided he should not take part in a race he has won three times, in 2005 and 06, and in 2010.
“Two sets of chest CT scans were compared and it was decided that there was insufficient resolution of the signs to allow him to compete on safety grounds,” the FIA said.
“A repeat chest scan has been requested before the Chinese Grand Prix, and the results will be considered before allowing him to race there.”
Alonso will be replaced by McLaren reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne, a 24-year-old Belgian who will make his F1 debut.
Vandoorne, the current GP2 champion, tweeted that he was “so much looking forward to it” and added that he “will do my best for the team.”
On Instagram, Alonso wrote that he had “tried until the last minute to race in Bahrain after the accident in Australia.”
He added: “I understand the position of the FIA doctors and now I will try to help my teammate @svandoorne to make the most of the weekend. Thanks to everyone.”
Speaking to F1.com ahead of the race, the Spaniard had said he was looking forward to returning to the track after his crash in Australia two weeks ago.
“I’ve spent some time resting, and I can’t wait to get back in the car,” he enthused. “Although on paper Melbourne wasn’t a great race for us, before the crash I’d been having some good battles and the car felt pretty promising, so I hope in Bahrain we can experience more of the same.”
Earlier, Alonso said he was lucky to be alive, adding: “I am thankful to be here. It was a scary moment and a scary crash.
“When I stopped, I saw a little space to get out of the car and I went out quickly just to make sure that my mum, who was watching the race on TV at home, could see that I was OK.”
Writing on Twitter, he said he was “aware that today I spent some of the luck remaining in life.”
He also posted an Instagram photograph of him reading a newspaper headlined: “Luckiest man alive.”
Alonso said of the crash: “You are just flying and then you see the sky, the ground, the sky, the ground.
“I didn’t know where I was because I was so far from the track. You want to stop, and it doesn’t stop. It keeps going and going and going.”
It’s the second successive year Alonso’s campaign has been hampered by crashes. He missed the 2015 Melbourne opener after being concussed during preseason testing in Barcelona.
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