Former Formula 1 and WEC driver Mark Webber admits he is concerned his good friend Fernando Alonso “could risk getting hurt” if he attempts to combine the Le Mans 24 Hours with his McLaren duties.
The Spaniard is thought to be lining up a run at motorsport’s most famous endurance race with Toyota as part of his personal career goal to achieve the Triple Crown, even participating at the Daytona 24 Hours this month to gain experience.
However, the Australian believes the double world champion could put himself in danger if he can’t commit to the full Le Mans program because of the demands of racing in F1.
“It’s a mistake, they are two totally different things,” Webber told Italian website Automoto.it. “Either he chooses to do Le Mans properly and focuses on it, working on it three weeks in advance with a maniacal focus and forgetting the rest of the year, or he could risk getting hurt.”
The 41-year-old would praise Alonso’s decision to race at Daytona, although suggested he should use it to “take the right decision”, he also brushed aside the argument of Nico Hulkenberg’s successful 2015 foray, which saw the German win with the same Porsche team Webber was then part of.
“That was with a second-rate team in F1. The pressures are different,” he responded, with Nico racing for Force India at the time. “He was also with the top Le Mans team and that simplified things a lot.”
As for the 36-year-old himself, he seemed less worried about the two areas of uncertainty he had going into his first trip to Daytona following the ‘Roar before the 24′ test event last week.
“In F1 we have some night racing in Bahrain, in Singapore and in Abu Dhabi as well and the circuit is quite well illuminated here, it’s not like other endurance circuits. So I found no big issues there,” he said.
“So it’s something that we should be on top of it for the race as well,” he concluded.