Alonso at Indy (to Miss Monaco)...

[GTRMagic]

...to race in the Indy 500..!

Story Here

Is it April 1st??

[mikuni]

Very surprising news, but why not aye?

Jenson Button?

[steve_r]

How exciting. Never saw that one coming.

[F1Guy]

Monaco, probably Honda's best chance for points.

[Langers]

Originally Posted by F1Guy

Monaco, probably Honda's best chance for points.

Exactly. Interesting choice.

[VIVA GT]

Very interesting. Possibly an attempt to keep Fernando interested...
Or is it a cop out? Have they promised him a potentially race-winning car in his 2017 contract (but craftily not mentioned that this won't be in Formula One)?

[Sodemo]

McLaren to enter Indy 500?

[fieldodreams79]

Seriously?

Very interesting and excited for Alonso as he's had a rotten run of late but it seems a low percentage move to throw him into an IndyCar at THE speedway. Hate that he'll miss Monaco and hopefully he can make the field. He should by just showing up, considering the potential numbers.

[Langers]

"Fernando Alonso, who has started 275 Grands Prix, has won 32 of those races, has become Formula 1 world champion twice, and has been Formula 1 runner-up three times."

Impressive to have those championship results with so few wins

[F1Guy]

Hello Jenson. Long time no see.

[Langers]

"“Could Fernando win this year’s Indy 500? Well, I wouldn’t be so silly as to make any such rash prediction, but I expect him to be in the mix. Put it this way: the team he’ll be racing for won the race last year, using the same Honda engine, and he’s the best racing driver in the world."

Hmm

[GTRMagic]

At least a Dallara DW12 Honda has a chance of victory..

[gert]

Very surprised by this.
I would have expected him to try Le Mans rather than Indy.

[Redlake27]

And as Zak Brown realises his share of the F1 TV rights fund is sliding down year by year, he does something that reminds Liberty that the McLaren brand isn't F1 dependent.

Handy, as renegotiation of the rights is a hot issue with the teams.

[chunterer]

Incredible development!!

Something going on as why would team/manufacturer want to lose their best chance of a strong result in Monaco?!

Is this part 1 of Liberty promote the F1-IRL tie up programme mentioned a couple of months back?

[Greem]

All the politics in the world couldn't stop me saying YEAH! when I read the news.

Brilliant.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by gert

Very surprised by this.
I would have expected him to try Le Mans rather than Indy.

No Honda at Le Mans = no go for Fernando Alonso.

(I had fun typing that!)

At least this way Honda get some - arguably more - PR mileage from Alonso than they would have done if he had raced in Monaco, even though that race would be the best chance of a good result.

Fernando's given up on this season, and I think this signals the end for his time in F1; I don't see him getting that Mercedes drive barring exceptional circumstances. So hopefully next year, he'll be at Le Mans

[Lanky Turtle]

I wonder if this will lead to him running Indycar full time next year because he can't be happy where he is.

[Kempi]

Originally Posted by Langers

"Fernando Alonso, who has started 275 Grands Prix, has won 32 of those races, has become Formula 1 world champion twice, and has been Formula 1 runner-up three times."

Impressive to have those championship results with so few wins

Remember his titles came early in his carreer when he had a high winning percentage and he has been stuck in slow cars for quite a while now. At the same time the number of races per season increased from 16-18 in his title winning times to up to 22 now. That makes stats less comparable to say VET and HAM.

[Adam43]

Blummin' marvellous.

[fergus_r]

Originally Posted by gert

Very surprised by this.
I would have expected him to try Le Mans rather than Indy.

Fernando has always expressed an interest in running Indy as much as Le Mans. He's going for the triple crown.

[BSchneiderFan]

It's not often that F1 takes me by surprise any more, but this certainly has done. All credit to the Spaniard (regular readers will know I am not a fan) - it's a long time since Jim Clark skipped Monaco to race at the Brickyard. Presumably Button will be called up; wonder if McLaren knew about this when JB was retained as third driver?

[Graz]

It's an admission by McLaren they're crap and will still be crap by Monaco because it's unthinkable otherwise.

Don't waste your time sticking Button in, he was on the beach well before last year finished and he's done. Give Giovinazzi another shot. He's race fit and quick. Prone to errors as we've seen but quick - you can teach somebody not to crash but can't teach someone to be quick and all that.

[billy bleach]

Impressive that all parties managed to keep this secret. Hats off to Zak Brown for having the vision to do it, the nous to sort it and ability to keep it secret until announcement. Remember Mansell at Indy ? Alonso could be mega....Imagine Ron allowing it and picking an Orange car.....no nor me!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by J Jay

At least this way Honda get some - arguably more - PR mileage from Alonso than they would have done if he had raced in Monaco, even though that race would be the best chance of a good result.

I have a feeling Honda pushed for this, so that they can continue to use Alonso promoted as a Honda driver with success.
Any result at Monaco (assuming they could get anything) would be attributed to the car not the engine.