One of the most awesome things that happened in motorsport this year was Fernando Alonso skipping Monaco to go and do the Indy 500. Driving for the Andretti team partnered by McLaren, it proved to be a massively popular move and Alonso was a contender for the win until his Honda engine went pop.
He’s said that he wants to go back and try it again as he hopes to complete motor racing’s triple crown, but with McLaren now switching to Renault engines it could make his chances of racing there in 2018 much harder…and that’s if Alonso even stays with the team.
Michael Andretti has given hope that it could still happen though, as he’s said his team is working on renewing the partnership with McLaren and Fernando for next year’s Indy 500. He told Autosport:
“There’s still a good chance that McLaren can be at Indy with us next year, so we’ll see. Zak [Brown] is trying to get his house in order a little bit, but the plan is to do things together in the future, hopefully at Indy.
“We’re talking. I think we’re just waiting for the dust to settle and getting everything in order in Europe, and in Formula 1, and then hopefully we can talk about still doing something. There’s still a good possibility we could do something together.”
I hope you’re not just teasing us, Michael!
Zak Brown confirmed that he was still interested in returning to the Brickyard, but said that sorting out Formula 1 was the main priority.
“IndyCar remains of interest to McLaren. We had an outstanding experience with Andretti Autosport and we continue to explore ways to continue our involvement, but 2018 is around the corner and we are very focused on F1 right now.”
Of course, for all of this to happen would require a few things. Alonso would have to stay with McLaren for next year, the car would have to be uncompetitive enough that Fernando doesn’t care about missing Monaco again, and Renault would have to be OK with him going off to race a Honda-powered car. Simple!
