Opportunities to compete outside of Formula 1 have made Fernando Alonso into a “racing monster”, according to McLaren Executive Director Zak Brown.
The American made the quip in the wake of announcing the Spaniard’s second foray into alternative series in a year as he follows up his Indianapolis 500 appearance by joining the United Autosports team the Rolex Daytona 24 Hours in January.
It may not be the only endurance race the double F1 champion participates in next year either, with suggestions the Daytona run could be a precursor to a tilt at the Le Mans 24 Hours as he continues his aspirations of completing motorsport’s Triple Crown.
“We’d had some light conversations, we talk about different racing all the time, and I was with Fernando and Luis [Garcia Abad] his manager and he said ‘I want to do Daytona’,” Brown was quoted by PlanetF1.
“I’m kind of getting used to it after Indy! I turned around to Luis and said ‘he’s serious isn’t he?’ And he said ‘oh yeah’ so I didn’t have to ask twice. We’ve created a monster – a racing monster!”
In a year that has seen Alonso’s future be one of the main stories, he has continued to claim F1 and a third title remains his number one focus but away from that the 36-year-old also wants to be considered one of the greatest all-round racing drivers ever.
“My plans for motorsport are much greater than anyone can think,” he said in Mexico. “I want to be the best driver in the world and to do that you need to win in different series, compete in different cars and sometimes you need to go out of this small world of F1.
“Motorsport is more than F1,” Alonso added.
