Fernando Alonso has announced that he will be missing this year’s Monaco GP in order to race in the infamous Indianapolis 500. Having been given permission to miss the race by McLaren, he will be racing for Andretti, but the car will be re-branded as a McLaren.
Alonso has said that he wants to win the ‘triple crown’ – the Indy 500, Monaco GP and Le Mans. In the past, the only driver to accomplish this has been Graham Hill but now Alonso is stepping up to the challenge. Having already won the Monaco GP twice, he now looks towards the Indianapolis 500 as his next challenge.
It has not yet been confirmed who will replace Alonso at McLaren for the Monaco GP weekend, although there is a possibility that it may be Jenson Button, who has recently retired and is still a part of the McLaren team.
Alonso has confirmed that he will be racing the rest of the season, only missing this one race:
“It’s of course a regret that I won’t be able to race at Monaco this year…But Monaco will be the only 2017 grand prix I’ll be missing, and I’ll be back in the cockpit for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in early June.”
Frustrated by the lack of performance McLaren and Honda have had for the past three years in Formula One, Alonso looks to a new challenge alongside Formula One. But how will he do? Having never raced a car like this before, he will have a lot to learn. However, he is driving for the team who won the race last year and is considered to be one of the greatest drivers currently racing. So it will be interesting to see how he gets on.