A victory at Le Mans, rather than the Spanish Grand Prix for Fernando Alonso
After his victory at Spa last weekend in the WEC, Fernando Alonso had to answer many questions about his feelings following his return to the top step of the podium and his participation in the two world championships.
Despite the difficulties encountered over the past three years with Honda, Alonso confirms he is still motivated because he is, above all, a competitor at heart.
The start of the season with McLaren gives him hope given the team’s results since Melbourne. Indeed, after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the team is fourth in the Constructors’ Championship and Alonso is pleased with his sixth place in the Drivers’ standings, not forgetting to look at where the team comes from: There is still much to do for us, but at the same time, we arrived here last year with 0 points.
He hopes to maintain, as much as possible, his position by the end of the championship, even though the road is still long. Indeed, despite the new developments McLaren is bringing to the car this weekend, he remains realistic about the need for further improvements to keep this position, as the car still needs to gain power against the competition.
The driver clearly distinguishes between the two championships and the demands in racing between driving an F1 and an LMP1. Despite his motivation remaining intact in F1, he knows that he does not yet have the best car that will allow him to win an F1 GP again.
Thus, he prefers to hope for a victory next June at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race, described as the greatest race in the world by the main party concerned, in order to enter the legend, rather than his national Grand Prix, a race he last won in 2013 with Ferrari. Asked about the same topic, Carlos Sainz stated that his priority was above all to win races in F1, ideally in front of his home crowd, and to become world champion, rather than thinking about other disciplines.
Moreover, he confirms how easily he adapts to his McLaren, despite the necessity of executing perfect laps. Indeed, an endurance race requires more flexibility as one has to manage traffic and changing conditions. The parallel was perfect with Brendon Hartley, who made the transition in the opposite direction. The New Zealander from Toro Rosso commented: “It was a bit the opposite for me last year. I was so comfortable with the WEC car, the Michelin tires, the four-wheel drive, and everything that comes with an LMP1 car. I was much less comfortable when I went back to F1.”
Moreover, the Spanish driver does not hide his preference for the closed paddock of Formula 1. Indeed, in WEC the paddock is completely open to the public, which promotes closeness with fans but can also generate stress. He believes that if such an open-door system were adopted in F1, it would have a counterproductive effect since it is very likely that the drivers would hide even more to escape public demands.
On the other hand, he regrets that F1 has become far too predictable. From his experience in another category, he notes that even when you’re far ahead, everything can change very quickly, making the WEC much more uncertain and therefore interesting from a driver’s perspective.
From there to thinking that he might leave F1 in favor of endurance exclusively in the near future, it’s only a small step that seems to be getting smaller…
From our special correspondent in Barcelona.
