07/03/2015
NEWS STORY
McLaren has played down claims that following his accident Fernando Alonso had 'lost' twenty years of his life.
On Thursday, Spain's El Pais claimed that regaining consciousness following the crash he told doctors: "My name is Fernando, I race karts. I want to be a Formula One driver."
Indeed, the Spanish newspaper claims that at first the two-time world champion couldn't remember anything after 1995, at which time he was 13.
However, speaking to Sky Sports, team boss Eric Boullier says the Spaniard suffered a "normal concussion" with a loss of temporary memory.
"It's not as dramatic as you read in the media," said the Frenchman. "Everything is back to normal."
Earlier in the day, Alonso himself appeared to make fun of the claims, taking to Twitter he wrote: "In a few days the championship starts and we ran out 'imagination'. I propose a game with RT (re-tweet) to the most creative. #wheredidyouwakeuptoday."
In a subsequent tweet he revealed that he was in preparation for round two of the championship in Malaysia.
"Keep working good," he wrote. "30 min bike, 30 swim, 30 gym. Malaysia is one of the most demanding races, and we will be at 100 percent."
Confirming that Alonso has undergone various medical tests on his reaction times and that everything is normal, Boullier added: "We are monitoring until the end of the recovery time. As far as we are concerned, we want him to be in the simulator not to test him but rather to update him on what we have been doing over the last two weeks."