In the paddock: Edd Straw

A full-scale tilt at next year’s Indycar title makes a lot of sense for Fernando Alonso, Mclaren and motorsport fans

When Fernando Alonso’s 2017 Indianapolis 500 assault was announced, he offered a very clear explanation for his desire to do it that stretched beyond simply wanting to win motorsport’s ‘triple crown’.

Even though Alonso stated several times back then that he had no intention of racing in Indycar fulltime, what he said supports the idea that he must compete there next year should Mclaren’s bid for a permanent presence in the US come to fruition.

“If I want to be the best driver in the world, there are two options,” he said. “i win eight Formula 1 world championships, one more than Michael [Schumacher], which is very unlikely. The second one is to win different series in different moments of my career and be a driver that can race and win in any car, in any series.”

So here’s what Alonso should do. First, make sure Zak Brown’s ambitious plan for a Mclaren Indycar team comes off. While not yet a done deal, it’s more likely than not, with both Michael Andretti’s and Bobby Rahal’s teams in discussions with Mclaren. Alonso can then launch a focused assault on attempting to repeat Nigel Mansell’s achievement of 1993 and win the Indycar crown at his first attempt. Ideally, doing so while managing something Mansell never achieved: winning the Indy 500.

This will also allow Mclaren to keep Alonso on its books in the hope of bringing him back to F1 when its car is good enough to win. Alonso would be able to keep tabs on the team, certainly test the 2019 car and perhaps even turn up for some races to keep his hand in and monitor progress.

In doing so, Alonso would remain a contemporary F1 driver and race-sharp should an opportunity arise for him at an established frontrunning team. And if Mclaren gets its act together, more likely for 2021, he’d still be young enough to come back and win some more races, even though he hits 40 in July that year. This is the perfect have-your-cake-and-eat-it scenario for Alonso.

An Indycar deal would also allow him to see out the World Endurance Championship superseason with Toyota. That would give him a second crack at ticking Le Mans off the bucket list should he not win it this weekend.

He’s already in with a strong chance of taking the WEC title, provided he completes the superseason. But Indycar is another kettle of fish. There, he will be up against seasoned, high-level professional teams and drivers, all with a vast depth of experience to draw upon. While the comparison with Mansell’s achievement in 1993 is an easy one, it will actually be even harder for Alonso to pull it off.

The field was more spread out back in 1993, and Mansell was only up against another 12 full-season entries with the latest-specification cars. That doesn’t devalue Mansell’s achievement, it merely makes what Alonso is up against even more difficult.

But we cannot underestimate the ‘alonso factor’. He will be incredibly diligent. Both for his Indy 500 assault and his Le Mans attack, he has devoted huge amounts of time to watching video footage of races, both broadcast and onboard, as well as spending endless hours in simulators. Alonso is a driver who leaves no stone unturned.

He will also be able to build up a team around him that works his way. At Indy, he saw plenty of potential to bring F1 approaches and knowhow to the race, and with Mclaren’s involvement it would be possible to create a very tight, efficient and focused operation around him.

While it will likely effectively be a satellite operation, it will be as much ‘team Alonso’ as ‘mclaren’. This is what will give him a chance of beating high-quality opposition. It would be ridiculous to say he would definitely win the title in one attempt – but he could be in the mix. And given that Mclaren’s focus will increasingly turn to 2021, when F1’s rules are reset, perhaps he could even have a two-year run at it…

Alonso racing in Indycar would solve another problem for Mclaren, that of what to do with Stoffel Vandoorne and Lando Norris. There’s every chance Norris will win Formula 2 this year, so Mclaren will have to use him in F1 or lose him. So with Alonso off to Indycar and WEC, Mclaren can run Vandoorne and Norris.

In Alonso’s dream scenario, he would have the chance to complete the triple crown and tick off both the WEC and

Indycar titles before returning to F1 and winning the third world championship he covets so much.

If he is serious about that desire to prove himself to be the best driver in the world, what better way to do it than to build the kind of topline racing CV that seemed to be a thing of the past? Sounds a lot more fun than being mired in the F1 midfield – both for Alonso and for motorsport fans.

“THIS IS THE PERFECT HAVE YOUR-CAKE-AND-EAT-IT SCENARIO FOR ALONSO”