Alonso to stay in hospital, McLaren unfazed by crash
McLaren Honda endured another difficult day in testing with Fernando Alonso's crash brining an early end to today's running after completing just 20 laps.
The team had scheduled to run Alonso before noon and then allow Button to get in the car after lunch, but none of that came true, as the car first of all wasn't ready before 10h30, and then just ahead of the lunch break, Fernando Alonso suffered an accident at Turn Three just before lunchtime. Although conscious, and able to speak with the circuit’s medical team, he was flown to a nearby hospital, where he was given CT and MRI scans as precautionary measures. He was uninjured, but will remain in hospital overnight.
Given the lack of remaining track time, and the lengthy and thorough procedures needed to check the car and power-unit after such an impact, the team decided that it was not worth hurrying the rebuilding of the car in order to resume testing before close of play.
“Fernando’s accident was just one of those things that happens in testing", Eric Boullier commented.
"Fortunately, he’s fine, but was concussed during the accident, which therefore required an overnight stay in hospital as a precaution. That’s normal practice after a concussion. Inevitably, some media reports have sought to exaggerate the severity of the incident – it was just a normal testing accident.
“While the car wasn’t particularly badly damaged, it was enough of an impact to warrant quite a lengthy check of the gearbox and power unit systems. Given the time needed to carry out such an analysis, we decided to bring the curtain down on our test a few hours earlier than anticipated.
“It’s been a tough week for the whole team, but we’ll be back, and pushing harder than ever, in Barcelona next week.”
Even though it is unclear at the moment what exactly triggered the crash, reports from photographers on site read that Alonso appears to have had no reaction on the impact, and after coming to a halt was sat in the car for several minutes before getting out. He subsequently lay aside of the car before being helped on a carrier into the ambulance. Speculation of what really happened varies from front suspension damage, fainting or being shocked due to a problem in one of the electrical components on the car.
