Alpine’s Fernando Alonso does not see himself returning to WEC to contest Le Mans when he signs with Aston Martin next season.
Alonso first won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota in 2018, before achieving the same feat a year later after he left the pinnacle of motorsport.
The 41-year-old returned with his current French side last season, achieving his 98th career podium at the Qatar Grand Prix, but he was out of contract at the end of this ear.
New team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, did not want to keep the Spaniard on for two more years, instead preferring to give him a one-plus-one so he could review his driver’s performance at the end of 2023.
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This was insulting to Alonso, so he went to Aston Martin’s billionaire owner, Lawrence Stroll, and agreed to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel at the end of the season.
Aston Martin won the GTE-Am category this year at the infamous French race, and there have been rumours that they are planning a revival of the Valkyrie Hypercar that Adrian Newey helped design in 2016.
Le Mans clashed with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this year, and organisers are keen to avoid an eclipse in 2023.
So, could Alonso return to the Le Mans 24 Hours with Aston Martin next year?
“Difficult,” he sceptically told El Mundo Deportivo.
“Right now I’m pretty focused on F1, and Aston Martin too, next year we have 24 races plus practice, sponsored events and you have almost no life left. You sacrifice everything for one thing.”
Having won Le Mans in both of the races he has contested, the double world champion in F1 is not sure he would want to risk his 100 percent record.
“As long as I’m in F1, Le Mans is impossible and in the future I don’t know if I’m going to try it. I’ve won both times I’ve tried it and I’m afraid if I try it again I’ll break that streak,” added Alonso.
Alonso’s goal next year with the British team is a simple one. He wants to obtain “my 33rd victory in Formula 1 with them”.
“I am confident that we are going to do a good job,” added the Spaniard.
“They have all the necessary resources and investment, the talent – they have signed number one engineers from Red Bull and Mercedes.
“This year they have started badly but many times starting badly gives you that spark of wanting to change the situation quickly.
“Let’s try to turn the situation around.”
Last season, Alonso coined the phrase, “El Plan,” which essentially entailed coming back to F1 and returning to the top step of the podium.
It became a popular meme, but he does not want to get caught up in that gimmick again. His ambitions, though, have not changed.
“Let’s not start that again, because there was already enough trouble with El Plan. These things are always created in social media,” joked Alonso.
“If it has to be the mission, then it’s the mission. Do I believe in it? We all have to believe.
“But what happens in F1 is that you start in one position and you are going to finish in that position. It’s not like football where a small one can beat the big one.
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“In F1 everything is too exact and mathematical for that. There are few moments of surprise. That’s the big problem.
“You can create an illusion but then in the 24 races it can be very monotonous to keep doing the same thing and frustrating for the fans.”
Alonso is currently ninth in the championship, but he might have been much better off had it not been for a series of unfortunate incidents in the early part of the year.