Alonso invites Barcelona Hospital team to dinner

Fernando Alonso will this week reunite with the medical team that nursed him back to health after his winter Formula 1 testing crash.

El Mundo newspaper reports that the McLaren-Honda driver has invited members of the Hospital General de Catalunya out for dinner ahead of this weekend’s Spanish grand prix at the Barcelona circuit.

Friday practice will then be the 33-year-old’s first laps of the Circuit de Catalunya since he was taken to hospital after mysteriously crashing in the fast turn 3 corner whilst testing in late February.

Alonso stayed in hospital for four days and missed the Melbourne season opener, but ever since has raced apparently without problem in Malaysia, China and Bahrain.

But the FIA has never publicly released the findings of its investigation into the crash, while in Malaysia in March Alonso gave an account that appeared to contradict McLaren’s official story.

“I think everybody was telling the truth,” team supremo Ron Dennis told British television Sky recently, “but unfortunately people see a sinister side.

“If Fernando felt something wrong with his car, I’m not going to disagree, but in the end we are really looking forward.”

Indeed, Dennis has now told F1’s official website that speculation Alonso might soon tire of waiting for better results at McLaren-Honda and retire is not true.

“He has a straight three year contract with us, with no options,” he revealed. “That’s what we wanted to offer him, and that’s what he wanted to sign.

“I can’t make it plainer than that, can I?”

Finally, there are suggestions McLaren may tweak the livery of its MP4-30 car for the Spanish grand prix, removing silver and replacing it with grey or more of the team’s iconic ‘rocket red’.