Fernando Alonso has revealed that he has had surgery earlier this month after discussing his absence from the virtual Le Mans 24 Hours event that was taking place over the weekend.

The two-time Formula 1 world champion is a Le Mans winner in real life as well, having spent time competing in WEC during his sabbatical from F1 between the end of 2018 and the start 2021.

He returned to the premier single-seat class for the start of last season, though, and quickly showed that he had lost none of his touch or race-craft during that time away with some impressive performances.

There had been a chance he was going to be involved in the virtual event for 2022, meanwhile, which took place over the weekend but the Spaniard revealed that he had had surgery and so couldn't be involved:

“I couldn’t participate this time because I had an operation last week and was in hospital for a while."

Alonso confirmed that he is recovering well, though, and is looking forward to attacking the new season at 100% with hopes that the new Alpine car combined with 2022's fresh set of regulations is going to provide him with a chance of challenging at the sharp end:

“Now I’m recovering from this operation and want to prepare better for the new season than last year. We have to go into the winter tests with a good program – not only physically, but also with the car.

“If the car is competitive then I’m sure I’ll be 100 percent,” he added.