Fernando Alonso is recovering well, and has exchanged text messages with his team and is absent from this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix strictly on doctors’ orders, his McLaren Honda team-mate Jenson Button said on Thursday.
"It is important for him to recover properly and get ready to return fully fit when he starts racing again," said Button.
The English driver swept aside news reports that the two-time champion Spaniard may have suffered memory loss, or worse, after an alleged electronic malfunction when he crashed in testing in Spain.
"I have not seen him or spoken to him, but I’ve had a couple of texts after the last test," said Button.
"That’s good to see – 101 laps," he told me in one of them,’ Button explained. "But I am not the man to ask about his medical condition," he added, a statement echoed by stand-in teammate Kevin Magnussen during the day’s official FIA press conference a few hours later.
"He is doing what the doctors say and his return is down to his doctors. That’s all I know," added Button.
Asked about the cause of Alonso’s accident, he said: "We don’t like to see any accidents with an F1 car and we are always working on safety, and very closely too with the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association). What I can say is that there is absolutely no problem with the car at all. None at all."
"All I know is that I have seen, and studied, all the data from the car and there is no issue with the car. Absolutely none. There is definitely no problem with the car whatsoever."
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