Tag: msk_20180401

It’s late in the evening. Toyota has booked the Portimão track in southern Portugal for an epic 30-hour endurance test. We have 20 minutes to discuss the season ahead – in which Fernando Alonso will, uniquely in the modern era, contest two world championships, F1 and the WEC. He’s typically sharp-witted and articulate, even if there’s a hint of weariness in his body language.

Outside, his Toyota prototype continues to pound around. He is driving the car for multiple stints during this test, and has just emerged from his first night session in a 1000bhp sports car – arguably the most sophisticated racing car ever built.

When he announced his intention to race WEC and F1 he said he looked forward to the ‘challenge’; he’s certainly got that…

You need to be sharp

Adapting to the new car – the new driving style, new environment, new team, new rules – everything is different. You need to do your homework and you need to be flexible and adaptable every time you are in the car. The thing about endurance, and about 24 hours, it’s that every single lap is different. It’s not like Formula 1 where you do continuous laps, in known territory. Here, in one lap you find two GT cars, another you are alone, another is at night, another is 30 degrees. Every lap is different so you have to adapt.

I came close to doing Le Mans when I was with Ferrari

I waved the green flag at Le Mans in 2014, and I was very close to racing there in ’13 and ’14, but Ferrari was not very keen on sharing anything with other brands. When I joined McLaren it was very close, but it didn’t happen for different reasons. Now it has finally happened – with the best team possible so I am extremely happy now.

I train a lot in karting

It still helps. I have done some 24-hour kart race to prepare for this. All the kids I follow and help, even when they are 14-15 they want to switch to cars and I stop them. The highest level in karting is 100 times higher than an F4 or F3 championship, so karting is not only the best school, it is probably the third- or fourth-biggest arena in motor sport.

I am preparing for Le Mans much more deeply than I did Indy

At Indy we were leading the race, it was very demanding, it was very challenging. At least with this I am able to test here and I have done Daytona. So I have done some traffic management and driver changes. And the speed is there. For this I am more prepared than Indy. You have to be.

The acceleration is just amazing

The car is giving you different challenges and different feelings. The electronics are very sophisticated, you have everything optimised from the four-wheel drive and the traction control. You know, with 1000 horsepower – it’s amazing. It’s very impressive because the whole thing is about endurance but also about consistency.

The four-wheel drive and the tyres are probably the biggest difference

How the car works, and how the tyres work to be very consistent over 60 laps, is very impressive. Normally with the other [F1] cars you drive around the tyre degradation and you change your style because the tyre is not able to cope. This car you can drive with your own style for 60 laps because the car will give you that opportunity – and that’s good. When you drive a corner with this car you rely on the systems – you rely on the traction control, the four-wheel drive, the front motor and the rear motor.

To have the confidence to do this sort of thing takes a little bit of time

Here [at Portimão] in the last corner, in testing, you have a blind corner. When it’s night and you can’t see… you are still flat out because the car will do the best to go out of the corner. You have to trust that it will know what to do on that corner to optimise the acceleration. Sometimes it’s difficult to rely on that [trust].

Fernando Alonso’s 2018-19racing schedule 20018

January 27-28 Daytona 24 Hours

March 25
Australian Grand Prix

April 8
Bahrain Grand Prix

April 15
Chinese Grand Prix

April 29
Azerbaijan Grand Prix

May 5
WEC Spa

May 13
Spanish Grand Prix

May 27
Monaco Grand Prix

June 10
Canadian Grand Prix

June
16-17 Le Mans 24 Hours

June 24
French Grand Prix

July 1
Austrian Grand Prix

July 8
British Grand Prix

July 22
German Grand Prix

July 29
Hungarian Grand Prix

August 19
WEC Silverstone

August 26
Belgian Grand Prix

September 2
Italian Grand Prix

September 16
Singapore Grand Prix

September 30
Russian Grand Prix

October 7
Japanese Grand Prix

October 21
United States Grand Prix

October 28
Mexican Grand Prix

November 11
Brazilian Grand Prix

November 18
WEC Shanghai

November 25
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

2019*

March 16-17 12 Hours of Sebring

March
Australian Grand Prix

April
Bahrain Grand Prix

April
Chinese Grand Prix

April
Azerbaijan Grand Prix

May 4
WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

May
Spanish Grand Prix

May
Monaco Grand Prix

June 15-16 24 Hours of Le Mans

Dates for 2019 Formula 1 Grands Prix based on 2018 calendar

I’ve never driven the Le Mans track, not even on the simulator

I’m curious to see how the feeling is. At night too. Singapore, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi – even at Daytona it’s quite well illuminated but here [Portimao testing] it’s dark and I think Le Mans is somewhere in the middle. After some testing I think Le Mans will be easier, hopefully, but you put some traffic and some cars around that will be the biggest challenge.

Sharing the car with other drivers? It’s part of the game.

Knowing what others may need, and what setup they are happy with, and why they are happy with that setup. How they can make that setup work, how they enter a corner and don’t have the problems you have. It’s part of where you can learn.

I’m learning a lot. The atmosphere is amazing, from the first day, everyone really friendly. We have a WhatsApp group that we are constantly chatting. Today we were taking pictures of the others, if they are cutting the track here or there. Atmosphere is so different, so open, and so friendly.

The first race at Spa will feel different.

It will feel strange – but maybe not the circuit. We will see. The prototype training I have done so far has been on new circuits, so everything has been strange. Even the rain. At Spa it rains a lot. One of the three days, if it rains it will be the first time in a closed cockpit car with the rain. So we will have to see how good the wiper is…

I watched some of the WEC races, and the visibility doesn’t look that bad – but we will see. Maybe it’s the covered rear wheels, and maybe that doesn’t spray as much as F1.

I know every single day in the year where I will be and what I will do.

The calendar is something I look at very carefully. Everyone looks at the races, but the biggest time and most energy-consuming things will be the marketing events with the F1 team, the personal commitments, media activities and the travelling – that will be the worst part. For 27 Sundays – the racing will be the easiest thing. You close the visor and you go. But there is Russia, Japan, Fuji, Austin, Mexico, China, Brazil so there will be seven or eight consecutive races in different parts of the world. But I know every single flight I have to take. I have everything in the calendar very efficiently.

If I have any days free in my diary I will be at home.

I will be doing my training, I will jump on the bicycle with friends, I will be busy with my family. I will not spend any free energy. Even now, in February, and I have a little more time now, I will save because the batteries I will need in September and October.

I have been a long time in the garage in the last three years…

You know, waiting for my car to be repaired [laughs]. I know from Daytona, even after a [team-mate] crash, I was surprised that everyone in the pitlane was ready to go. With this car the team is ready, they are ready to change the front corner, and they are ready to go.

I don’t have any plan beyond this superseason.

We will see if we are in that position to be in [to do Indy]. Last year the Indy experience, being happy there, feeling competitive there, it opened my eyes. Now if I can be competitive here as well, and we have the chance to win Le Mans, maybe I could have another attempt in the future and hopefully be competitive again.

Fernando Alonso will race a Toyota TS050 Hybrid this year, and not just at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The McLaren Formula 1 driver will contest the full 2018/19 World Endurance Championship superseason with the Japanese manufacturer. That’s presuming there are no clashes between the three events in 2019 and next year’s F1 calendar. But there aren’t any conflicts this season, because the WEC has changed its one date that did fall on a Grand Prix weekend.

Moving the Fuji round to avoid a clash with the US Grand Prix in Austin has been controversial, and even viewed as cynical in some quarters. But it is a clear indication of the importance of the arrival of a two-time F1 world champion in a series that needs an important story line in the wake of the disappearance of first Audi and then Porsche from the LMP1 class at the front of the field.

The shift of the Fuji date is contentious because it has already been changed once. The original calendar listed the Fuji 6 Hours on the same weekend, October 13/14, as the Petit Le Mans round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America.

A clamour from WEC drivers who were working on deals for the long-distance rounds that make up IMSA’s North American Endurance Cup resulted in it being moved back a week shortly after the original calendar was announced last year.

The desire to accommodate both Alonso and his WEC employer, which owns and runs the Fuji circuit, has resulted in a volte face. It comes at a time when the WEC and its promoter, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest at Le Mans, are trying to deepen a long-standing relationship with IMSA: they are lobbying the governing body of North American sports car racing to adopt the new LMP1 rules they are planning for 2020/21.

WEC boss Gerard Neveu has steadfastly defended the U-turn, insisting that it was necessary to “protect the interests of the championship”.

“How can you imagine having someone like Alonso in your paddock, racing for Toyota, and saying that we are going to Japan without him?” Neveu said. “Fernando wants to fight for the world championship; he cannot miss one race. It was logical.

“When you take a decision like this, you know always some people will be happy and some will be unhappy. It made sense for us to do it and I am very sorry for drivers who have a clash.”

He pointed out that IMSA knew what having a driver of Alonso’s profile on the grid meant. The Spaniard, of course, contested the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA opener in January with the United Autosports team co-owned by McLaren boss Zak Brown. His presence brought the race to the attention of a whole new audience.

Neveu raised the hope that the date of Petit, which falls a week later than usual, might be able to change. But a matter-of-fact statement from an IMSA spokesman ruled that out.

“The WEC did ask IMSA to change the date of this year’s Motul Petit Le Mans, and IMSA did respectfully consider this request and explored doing so,” he said. “Due to some factors such as television coverage, IMSA’s year-end banquet on the same weekend, and competitor and manufacturer logistics already being in place, it was determined there were too many hurdles to overcome to move the event.”

A raft of WEC drivers who have deals to race in the NAEC events have hit out at the date change. Ganassi WEC driver Olivier Pla, who is signed with the Extreme Speed Motorsports Daytona Prototype international squad for the IMSA enduros, suggested that the move wasn’t “nice and wasn’t fair”.

“When there was a clash on the first version of the calendar, we went to the WEC and asked them to change it. When they did, I went back to them and thanked them,” he said. “I understand that they have done it for Alonso, but they have put a lot of drivers, maybe as many as 10, in a difficult situation.”

Bruno Senna, Nicolas Lapierre and Harry Tincknell are among the high-profile WEC drivers with additional IMSA rides. Then there are the factory GT drivers who join the IMSA series for the long races. Gianmaria Bruni, for exampled, had been set to race at Petit.

Alonso’s pulling power is just too important to the WEC to ignore in its hour of need, as is its on-going relationship with Toyota. The Japanese manufacturer is a major player in the rule-making process for 2020/21. It has made no guarantee to continue beyond the superseason, but it is the nearest the WEC and Le Mans have to a manufacturer with a commitment to LMP1.

Its signing of Alonso can be interpreted an indication of a commitment to the WEC. It knows that if it is winning as it pleases against a band of P1 privateers, the profile of a championship that has hung its hat on the fierce battles between itself and Porsche and Audi will undoubtedly suffer.

The gaze of the world’s media will be on the WEC courtesy of Toyota’s signing of one of the best Formula 1 drivers of his generation. His bid to complete the unofficial triple crown of motor sport by adding Le Mans and Indianapolis 500 victories to his pair of Monaco Grand Prix wins adds another dimension to the story.

But Alonso’s presence in the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad will be a double-edged sword for arguably the biggest underachiever in the history of Le Mans. Toyota has never won the 24 Hours, but it has come close multiple times. It was six minutes short of victory in 2016 and should have won last year and in 2014, the year it took the WEC drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles.

The problem for Toyota should it finally notch up a Le Mans victory will be one of perception. What will the headlines scream should Alonso triumph together with team-mates Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima? ‘Toyota wins Le Mans!’ or ‘Alonso wins Le Mans!’ That’s any easy one to answer.

And what if the Alonso car doesn’t win? Or more to the point, what if the TS050 shared by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez wins ahead of the sister car, and narrowly so. At some point in the race, Toyota would have to tell its drivers to hold station if they are running one-two at the front of the field. Alonso, the consummate pro that he is, would understand the need for that, but would the watching world?

Alonso’s arrival in the WEC in pursuit of the triple crown, something previously achieved only by Graham Hill, has clearly overridden any such fears. It’s the same at the WEC. The boost he will provide is more important than keeping its regular drivers happy, and perhaps even than keeping its transatlantic accord with IMSA on the rails.