Alonso crash piles pressure on McLaren

McLaren Honda's Spanish driver Fernando Alonso. AFP Photo

Fernando Alonso's mysterious crash has put McLaren on the back foot before the Formula One season has even started in what threatens to be another tough year for the team.
      
Speculation over the accident during testing is increasing rather than abating as Alonso prepares to sit out this week's season-opener in Australia on medical advice.
     
A report that Alonso, 33, thought it was 1995 and he was still in go-karting when he regained consciousness was dismissed as "nonsense" by his manager Flavio Briatore.
      
But Briatore said the circumstances of last month's crash in Barcelona, which concussed Alonso and gave him at least temporary memory loss, were "very strange".
      
"I saw footage, which Bernie Ecclestone sent me, where we see that the impact is not so hard," Briatore told Sky Italia.
      
"(Ferrari's Sebastian) Vettel is behind, he passes, and you see Fernando crashes without any apparent reason.
      
"We have to see if there is a steering problem. We have not had any information on that from McLaren."       

Questions over the incident will be prominent in Melbourne this week as McLaren fight the fall-out and hope their misfiring cars can reach the chequered flag.
      
The celebrated British team has already denied that Alonso suffered an electric shock in the cockpit, and Briatore said tests had not indicated any existing health problems.
      
"If Fernando had had a problem, a heart problem, a small stroke, a blood clot; it can happen even to a great sportsman," said the Italian.
      
"And we have seen that absolutely all the examinations and tests made on the driver were negative."                       
The controversy has raised the...

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