The McLaren-Honda driver was hospitalised with concussion after a gust of wind sent his car in to a wall during last month's Barcelona test session. Although he's fully recovered from that incident, doctors have recommended he sit out the opening race of the 2015 F1 season.
Here's a statement from the team:
"Having performed an exhaustive series of tests and scans – some of them as recently as yesterday evening – McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso's doctors have informed him that they find him asymptomatic of any medical issue; that they see no evidence whatsoever of any injury; and that they therefore describe him as entirely healthy from neurological and cardiac perspectives alike.
"However, Fernando's doctors have recommended to him that, following the concussion he sustained in a testing accident at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 22nd, for the time being he should seek to limit as far as is possible any environmental risk factors that could potentially result in his sustaining another concussion so soon after his previous one, so as to minimise the chances of second impact syndrome, as is normal medical procedure when treating athletes after concussions."
Kevin Magnussen will sit in.
Remember how we spent most of the off-season waiting to find out whether it'd be Magnussen or Jenson Button that got the drive this year? Never mind.