Fernando Alonso is more likely to return to the Dakar Rally than the Indy 500 sooner or later, however insisted his “solely precedence” is to seize a 3rd Components 1 world championship with Aston Martin.
Alonso signed a brand new contract earlier this yr that retains him at Aston Martin’s F1 staff till at the least the 2026 season, together with an ambassadorial deal that’s set to maintain him tied to the producer past his grand prix driving days.
Aged 43, the Spaniard says he’s nonetheless aspiring the win a 3rd world championship earlier than his time within the sequence is up, together with his staff having bolstered its technical ranks with Purple Bull design legend Adrian Newey, Ferrari’s technical director Enrico Cardile and former Mercedes energy unit chief Andy Cowell in current months.
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He was additionally requested concerning the prospect of returning to Indianapolis to finish motor racing’s triple crown of profitable the Indy 500, the Le Mans 24 Hours and F1’s Monaco Grand Prix, however poured chilly water on a fourth look at IndyCar’s headline occasion.
“I tried Indy 500 thrice and did not succeed. It is the one one lacking [from the triple crown]. However in the meanwhile, it isn’t in my plan,” Alonso stated at an occasion of Aston’s sponsor Cognizant.
“I am very, very targeted [on] Components 1 now. For the subsequent two or three years, I need to win the third world title. That is my first and solely precedence in the meanwhile.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Group, settles into the automobile
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures
“After that, as a result of I will likely be 45, 46, I believe the dedication that it’ll require to go to the Indy 500, the quantity of studying that I must redo once more… it is going to be a bit of bit an excessive amount of. Or it is what I believe now, I can’t say 100%.”
Slightly than heading again to the Indianapolis oval, the two-time world champion stated he was more likely to have one other shot at profitable the Dakar Rally, which he feels could be an even bigger assertion of his versatility as a driver.
Throughout his F1 sabbatical, Alonso completed thirteenth within the 2020 Dakar Rally with Toyota alongside five-time bikes winner Marc Coma, with a pricey crash on the tenth stage costing him hours.
“I believe my subsequent greatest problem would be the Dakar,” he defined. “If I can win Dakar, I believe it is going to be vastly rewarding for me personally as a result of I can win in Components 1, I can win in endurance racing, win in Le Mans and Daytona, and if I can win in rally as nicely, it’s going to imply loads for me as a driver.
#310 Toyota Gazoo Racing: Fernando Alonso, Marc Coma
Photograph by: A.S.O.
“You can not drive a Components 1 automobile the identical approach as a Le Mans automobile that has to do 24 hours to win the race, or the Dakar rally, the place you need to undergo the dunes and the gravel round Saudi. So, I needed to be taught and begin from zero in a lot of these classes and encompass myself with the perfect drivers on this planet particularly on that sequence, and be taught from them, and be humble.
“There is no such thing as a downside to just accept that I had no concept find out how to drive a rally automobile, however [was] day-by-day enhancing and studying from them till I used to be in a position to compete within the hardest rally on this planet.”
