Emma Gilmour will be sitting out of the final race of the Extreme E series in Chile next weekend, with the McLaren driver still recovering from a high-speed crash two months ago.
The McLaren team made the announcement overnight saying she will be replaced for the series finale.
"Following an incident at the 2023 Island X Prix II, this September, Emma has been recovering at home, and is still in the recovery process. Although she is making good progress with her recovery, she is unfortunately not fit in time to drive for the Copper X Prix next week. We wish her a speedy recovery."
Gilmour said it was a difficult decision to make.
"They left it totally up to me," she said. "Naturally they wanted me to race...
"Even though I'm feeling a lot better, I haven't been in a car and I haven't had any seat time and that's just not ideal preparation."
It's been a frustrating few months for Gilmour who has been recovering from concussion in her home city of Dunedin. It's fair to say life at the moment is going at a very different pace.
"Yeah, I don't like going slow," she laughed.
Gilmour can remember everything leading up to her accident, from the corner she took on, to the moment the car tipped.
Commentators described the crash as a "washing machine roll" which left the Kiwi with a concussion and a broken rib.
"The following day when I saw the crash in hospital I was like 'wow, that was massive'. It was a huge crash," she said.
"Where I crashed on the track was right in front of the pit area. My team was really worried about me, they and were very relieved when they heard me speak."
But the effects of the concussion still linger, with symptoms of fatigue and irritability.
Gilmour has been working with specialists to rehab her brain, using technology like virtual reality headsets.
"It's like a ball coming right at your eyes, so you're focusing, and then comes away gain," Gilmour said.
She has also been using a Dunedin-made device, a MR EMG which measures muscle response.
"Emma lost about 30 per cent of her function after the accident," practitioner and co-founder Rowan Ellis said.
"These [the MR EMG] measure the electrical signal from your brain to your muscles, so when a muscles is dysfunctional and weak the signal is really low," he explained.
Gilmour is making huge improvements on the road to recovery and is eyeing up a drive in the NZ Rally Championship to mark her return.
"I can't wait to get back in the car. That's what I love about the sport — going fast down a gravel road, making a car dance corner to corner — that's the buzz!"
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