Fernando Alonso explained how his decision to race in this year’s Indianapolis 500 came from a desire to prove himself as the best racing driver in the world.
The two-times world champion announced today he will skip this year’s Monaco Grand Prix to race in the Indianapolis 500. Alonso wants to win motor sport’s ‘triple crown’ of the Monaco Grand Prix, which he has also won, plus the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours.
Alonso said the first plans were discussed at the season’s opening race in Australia last month.
“We had a conversation at the circuit, Zak [Brown] asked me what were my ambitions and my plans for the future. So I mentioned the triple crown.”
“To be the best driver in the world I have to either win eight world championships and have one more than Michael Schumacher, which is unlikely at the moment, or winning in different series.”
“I remember when I was a kid the best drivers were in the best cars in the best championships in the world. So that was an ambition for me.”
Alonso said Brown was open to McLaren participating in championships outside F1.
“Zak told me it was an ambition for McLaren as well because he is much more open compared to the past McLaren about expanding McLaren in different series. The Indy 500, that McLaren won in the past, and in the Le Mans 24 hours that McLaren also succeeded in the past.”
The attraction of the Indianapolis 500 is “very clear”, said Alonso.
“It’s one of the best races in the world, one of the most prestigious races in the world. So as a driver if you want to be the best, if you want to be considered the best, you need to be able to drive all type of cars, in different series, and be able be competitive in all of them and be possible to win.”
“So after a successful F1 championships I think the opportunity to race in the Indy 500, the opportunity to race one day in Le Mans, and that dream of the triple crown, winning all the big series, is something very attractive from a driver’s point of view.”
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anon
12th April 2017, 21:07
So now we know. If you don’t win, Alonso, you are not the best driver ever.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
12th April 2017, 21:19
He can always drive the best race of his career in the lower midfield :-)
The Last Pope (@the-last-pope)
12th April 2017, 22:51
Who says this is his only chance? Maybe he will make it a yearly thing and a requirement in his next f1 contract.
Robert
13th April 2017, 15:30
@anon I think thats exactly what he’s saying. Unless he tries, he will never know. Obviously he wants to be the best. Who doesn’t? He clearly says he’s not the best, because he says that to be the best he needs to do the stuff mentioned in the article.
N
12th April 2017, 21:28
Odd that he feels the need to win 8 to be considered the best. (Senna? Clark? Prost?)
You cannot place a number on the ‘best’. The ‘best’ is not defined by how many titles you win, not in F1 of all sports. Maybe in a sport where your equipment is equal across the board, maybe.
BasCB (@bascb)
12th April 2017, 21:35
I think it’s more him confirming that he sees himself amongst the all time greats. Since both Hamilton and Vettel could have 4 (or even 5) titles by the end of the year, he has to go for the highest number to set himself above them.
GnosticBrian
12th April 2017, 23:58
I don’t consider Schumacher to have been the “best” just because he won the most. He was a cheat and a dirty driver.
Rockie (@rockie)
13th April 2017, 13:56
You don’t have to but the record books and F1 will consider him the greatest till a point in time when someone wins 8 titles.
Just the same way Micheal Phelps is to Olympics!
N
13th April 2017, 14:26
It’s nothing like Phelps, in fact, it’s interesting you use Phelps as the example there because that’s precisely the point.
Tiomkin
13th April 2017, 7:10
To beat MSC 7 world championships you need 8. So he said eight. That would make him the best in F1.
N
13th April 2017, 12:12
I think you missed the point entirely.
Robert
13th April 2017, 15:33
You both have points that differ. Equally good points that could never be proven. On paper, to be the best you need to have won the most. However emotionally, people think Senna was the best, because he died before it could be proven otherwise. In my opinion, if Alonso died directly after winning his 2nd WDC, he’d probably be rated similar to Senna on the emotions scale.
CashNotClass (@cashnotclass)
13th April 2017, 8:49
Doesn’t seem so odd. These guys mentioned are all fantastic drivers. There’s very little if anything between them in terms of skill and talent. Alonso has been hailed as F1’s best driver for many years, and they’ve all proven their case and made their mark. But when you want to stand out from that crowd it helps to be able to point to some unique achievement. Schumacher’s seven world titles stand out, as do his 91 race victories. The chance that Alonso will ever reach those numbers now is extremely low, and he knows that as well as anyone. The Triple Crown is another unique achievement (for his generation, that is), and one that he has a much better shot at.
Markp
13th April 2017, 13:01
Not the best driver by titles but the best career? The aim is to win so who won the most had the best career. Tripple crown? G.Hill did this but many believe his Lotus teammate Clark was better.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
12th April 2017, 21:33
He is the best F1 driver in make his teammate crash in the wall. (Singapore 2008).
Oli (@dh1996)
12th April 2017, 22:05
Sure, because that wasn’t a plot from Briatore/Symonds to avoid Alonso’s contractual cancelation clause in case they can’t deliver a car that wins a race.
Peppermint-Lemon (@)
12th April 2017, 21:42
Alonso has been the best driver since Schumacher retired
Juan (@korda-09)
13th April 2017, 1:45
+1
Rockie (@rockie)
13th April 2017, 13:58
Considering since Schumi retired he has not won a title!
Josh
12th April 2017, 21:51
If he runs anywhere near the top 5 I will be extremely impressed and I believe he can if Andretti Motorsports comes to Indy with fast cars. Winning is a different story. If FA goes to Indy in his first time ever and first time on an oval and wins, no one will argue that he isn’t a top 5 talent behind the wheel of all time. Itd be amazing. I just hope I don’t hear him crying that Indycar needs a halo after the race, because Indycar racing is still the most dangerous single seater series out there.
David (@tweak)
12th April 2017, 22:00
If he can make it to 4 titles, maybe 6 F1 titles, by that time he’d be so old and outdone by young talent that 8 title wins is VERY wishful thinking.
I think he should follow in Montoya’s footsteps and come to Indycar. Perhaps he’ll get a taste of Indycar at the Indy 500 and decide to move. From what I’ve seen, drivers from another series that come to Indycar, even Nascar (not a fan), see the balanced cars, fans, and sponsors as being far more successful and enjoyable than F1. The word “pinnacle” is no longer a factor to them.
praxis (@praxis)
13th April 2017, 7:42
AceAce
12th April 2017, 22:30
No pressure then, aha.
Haribo
12th April 2017, 23:31
Alonso is guaranteed to go down greatest drivers in history, he’s pretty much earned the right to cruise along and no longer push himself further, it’s great to see that he still values tangible prizes and I sincerely wish him nothing but the best in his quest to win the triple crown.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
12th April 2017, 23:49
It’s superb to see a driver that’s won the best thing ever achievable by a grand prix driver trying to be even more sucessful. He wanted to do Le Mans in 2015 (what might have been!), and he couldn’t, so it’s great to see him getting an Indycar ride which he also wanted. He said it before, this isn’t news.
He probably waited until his F1 chances were so soooo slim that missing a race meant nothing.
I loved watching Nico at Le Mans and I’ll love watching Alonso at Indianapolis. I wish more drivers did the same (or actually, were allowed to do it). With Pascal’s struggles at a mere ROC, which isn’t even a proper competition, I thought that would be it for teams risking their star drivers. I guess McLaren has absolutely NOTHING to lose so they don’t even mind!
Neil (@neilosjames)
13th April 2017, 0:00
If winning is the target, he’s probably looking at this as a regular thing, rather than a one-off… I rate Alonso as the best on the current grid, but I don’t believe even he could acquire the necessary skills and tricks to win at a super-speedway in his first ever experience of racing on one with other cars. I think he’ll probably get the single-lap pace nailed pretty quickly, but the actual racing part will be a different world.
And Le Mans… he’s got more than enough time and ability to do that one, providing he’s always in decent cars.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
13th April 2017, 1:05
Indy can throw up some surprises. Although I don’t believe Fernando will suddenly be the man to beat (he almost certainly doesn’t expect that either) it’s not too unrealistic to expect him to be top-10-level competitive (Rossi was able to make the transition last year, Kurt Busch did it a couple of years before). And if we have a situation like last year, anyone still on the lead lap could end up winning, if they’re smart with their fuel usage. He’ll need a fair bit of luck to win it this year, but it’s far from unthinkable.
What I’m loving is that in this modern world where motorsport drivers devote their career to mastering one particular craft, where the all-rounder is almost extinct, that a top-level driver still openly lusts after success in other arenas. I never thought we’d ever see another driver win the triple crown, but Fernando’s going for it. I’m incredibly excited for this.
Chema Carrasco (@chemakal)
14th April 2017, 19:47
+1
sprint9 (@sprint9)
13th April 2017, 3:50
I hope he has success in his quest for the triple crown, he certainly has the talent to fulfill his ambitions. Its absolutely fantastic to have someone of his caliber racing in multiple series in this day and age. Ive always read of some of the greats and how they succeeded in different series and always found it stunning that they were able to do so, it will be great to see this first hand.
Samurai (@royalz)
13th April 2017, 6:51
If Fernando stays with McLaren-Honda for 2018, we will see him doung the 24 Hours of Lemans :p
RL
13th April 2017, 7:07
It’s great to see Alonso’s ambitions, Mclaren suck right now so it’s good on them to see the Indy 500 as an opportunity rather than as a threat, with their driver going away from the Monaco GP.
Maybe it’ll sell some more Mclarens in the US as well…
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
13th April 2017, 11:55
Even if he achieves the Triple Crown, he will not be the best on his own – he would share this with Graham Hill. So strictly speaking, if he thinks the Triple Crown is sufficient to make him the best, so would be seven F1 titles.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
20th April 2017, 1:21
Corollory: if the Triple Crown is a valid alternative route to becoming the best (and I’d argue that it can be), then Fernando not only needs to win Indy 500 and Le Mans, but also another title. The latter may prove the most difficult part of the equation…
Manule
13th April 2017, 15:28
Let Alonso win this one, and history will always remember him alongside one of the truly greatest… Juan Montoya!!! Seriously, this is looking too much like just a PR stunt from a desperate driver who really really craves attention now, and the schtick with ‘I’m driving the best race of my career’ has gone pretty stale. Brave stunt, for sure, but a stunt nonetheless. He must be thinking along the lines ‘If 40-year old journeyman Mansell could win CART Championship and came 3rd in Indy 500 freshly kicked out of F1, and if Villeneuve could win Indy 500, so can I. Or at least I will generate enough noise, so it’s a win-win’. In reality, history shows that there is a lot more to an Indy 500 win than the skill alone, and it is always part-lottery, that’s why there are Indycar champions, like Will Power, Sebastien Bourdais, or Simon Pagenaud, who never did particularly well in Indy 500, and there are Indy 500 multiple winners like Helio Castroneves or Arie Luyendyk, who never won a championship.
Truly, Montoya one day winning LeMans is much more likely than Alonso winning this year’s Indy 500 (and then sometime in the future also winning LeMans). So this is really more about making people talk about himself than anything else.
Robert
13th April 2017, 15:38
Guess we’re all watching Indi 500 instead of the GP haha
David-A (@david-a)
13th April 2017, 17:51
You are unable to watch two events that take place at different times of the day?
kanan
13th April 2017, 16:18
Umm. If you wanted to one up the best F1 driver and said 8, then you need to one up the other Triple Crown winner as well Fernando. Does Quadruple Crown exist or should he get 2 Triple Crowns lol?
And JPM can win it as well if he won Le Mans. Will we need to call him the best as well then?
Duncan Snowden
13th April 2017, 17:02
If I were a driver, I’d definitely want to have a stab at the Bathurst 1000. And the Daytona 500: let’s make it a round 5. :)
But this actually makes a lot more sense now. The way I see it, in this light, it’s not so much a desperate attempt to keep Alonso sweet for an underperforming team as a happy coincidence of his and Brown’s ambitions. Good luck to ’em.
bippy
13th April 2017, 18:34
This sounds an awful lot like a change of direction for FA. I think he knows that he’s recognised as being a great, regardless of number of titles (Moss anyone?) and he is with probably the only team on the grid which has the direct links and ability to compete at Indy and Le Mans fairly quickly. If he sticks with McLaren, he gets options in both races and you never know, the F1 car might even come good at some point. That’s a lot of options for a man who has very little to prove to anyone but himself.
Kgn11
13th April 2017, 21:10
He won’t win 8 WDC’s and he won’t win the triple crown, so he might as well get use to not being the best. Well it’s not like he was the best anyways.
AD zimzam
14th April 2017, 0:31
Well he has a better chance of winning the Indy 500 than Monaco this year so not the worst plan.!!!
iCarbs (@icarby)
14th April 2017, 10:45
“The best” is subjective unless that’s defined somewhere. I have my “favourites” based on driving style and/or achievements. Alonso is a favourite as is Verstappen, Hamilton, Vettel, Riccardo, Senna, Button.
I just need to see good competitive racing…