Winning the Indy 500 would mean a lot more to Formula One double world champion Fernando Alonso than merely scoring points for his uncompetitive McLaren team in Monaco Grand Prix
Fernando Alonso
McLaren's Fernando Alonso
Sakhir (Bahrain):
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Winning the iconic Indy 500 would mean a lot more to Formula One double world champion Fernando Alonso than merely scoring points for his uncompetitive McLaren team in the sport’s blue-riband Monaco Grand Prix.
“It’s great to have some points,” Alonso, twice a winner in Monaco, told reporters at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on Thursday.
“But I’ve won there a couple of times already and I’m a two-time world champion.
"So fifth, seventh or ninth in Monaco will not change my life."
Alonso will race a McLaren-entered car powered by the team’s Formula One engine supplier Honda and run by the team’s former driver and IndyCar champion Michael Andretti in the race in May.
That will leave the Monaco Grand Prix, often referred to as the ‘jewel in the Formula One crown’ missing one of the sport’s biggest stars.
For Alonso, who last stood on the top step of the podium in his home race in Spain in 2013, racing in the Indy 500 will hopefully give him the chance to return to the front of the field and contend for victory.
The 35-year-old, still tipped by many as the best driver in the sport, has spent the last two seasons fighting at best for the meagre points-paying positions, with McLaren hamstrung by a lack of power and reliability from Honda’s engines.
The team were expected to make big leaps up the order this season after finishing sixth overall last year.
But that promise has failed to materialise with the team dead last and Alonso, struggling to make the points as it is, retiring from each of the season’s two races so far.
The race in Monaco, run on the Principality’s tight, twisting streets, are seen as the team’s best chance this season of scoring a sizeable haul of points.
“In a way, it’s impossible to compare - having a chance to win Indy 500 to fifth, sixth or seventh at Monaco. This is much bigger,” said the Spaniard.
“…it’s like winning a world championship in one weekend.”
Should Alonso win at Indy, he will be one step closer to sweeping the ‘Triple Crown’ of motor-racing, which apart from Monaco and the Indianapolis race, also includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Only Graham Hill has so far managed the feat.
Most of Alonso’s fellow drivers said they wouldn’t trade racing at Monaco for the chance to compete in the Indy 500.
“My case was completely different,” said Nico Hulkenberg who competed and won at Le Mans on his sole appearance in 2015.
“I didn't go away from F1.
“I would have never done it if I had to miss a race, especially Monaco,” said the German who was driving for Force India then but could compete at Le Mans as it didn’t clash with any F1 races.
“I am a bit surprised like everybody about this situation."
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