Fisichella Confident Accident No Longer Affects Him

Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella believes he will not be further affected by his high speed crash in Magny Cours last week, stating he feels good - having also passed the mandatory medical test that cleared him to race this weekend.

Speaking exclusively to Atlas F1, Fisichella said: "I was confident of passing the medical test. After the accident I only had a small problem with my neck and a headache for one day, but everything has gone by now, and I knew that I'd pass the test without a problem."

Fisichella was examined by the FIA's chief medical officer, Prof. Sid Watkins, who further explained what these tests are all about: "We are looking for any abnormaility of neurological function through a series of complicated tests that check the vision, the movement, the hearing, facial movement, the reflexes and the ability to perceive minimal sensations of touch and joint position sense and balance.

"So we test all the functions that possibly a racing driver would need, and Giancarlo tested very well."

Asked whether the HANS device - which will become mandatory as of next year - would have reduced the damage to Fisichella, Watkins said: "I believe so, because we know from the 'dummy testing' and from CART and IRL that in frontal accidents or partial frontal accidents - which is what happened to Giancarlo - that the 'Head and Neck System' reduces the G-forces that are sustained in the head. In any event, the foam head-rest helped him a lot, and of course his helmet."