Alonso: I’ll be back in World Endurance

Fernando Alonso has insisted that he is only taking a “short break” from the World Endurance Championship. The two-time Formula 1 world champion may be leaving Toyota’s WEC squad at the end of the 2018-19 season, but he’s vowed to return to the series sooner rather than later.

“In the medium term and long term, 100%

I will come back to WEC, because it is a series

I really enjoy,” he said in the wake of last week’s announcement that he will not be staying in the championship for 2019-20. “I like the type of racing here, I like the unpredictability of the racing with all the traffic, and I like the team spirit of sharing a car with team-mates.”

Alonso also shed light on his decision to leave Toyota after one season in which he sealed the Le Mans 24 Hours leg of the triple crown he so craves at the first time of asking last year. He wanted to leave himself free to take up other opportunities that may arise for 2020, and couldn’t commit to Toyota for a season that won’t finish until June next year.

“To commit to the new season until June 2020 was closing [the door] on some of the opportunities that may come later in the year,” he explained.

“Being free of any obligations is the best way

I could approach those opportunities.”

Exactly what Alonso is holding out for isn’t clear. He isn’t ruling out an F1 return or a full season in the Indycar Series after his second crack at the Indianapolis 500 this month. “It could be

F1 in 2020, it could be Indycar, it could be a different series outside of all this,” he said.

Alonso once again raised the prospect of competing in motorsport disciplines new to him. He said he had “two or three ideas in my mind” that would “continue this challenge of mastering different types of motorsport”. One of those is the Dakar Rally. Alonso is known to be in talks to contest next year’s rally-raid in Saudi Arabia with Toyota after testing one of its Hilux contenders in March.