Indy 500 – Zak Brown: “I couldn’t say no to Alonso anymore”

The presence of Fernando Alonso in the entry list for the Indy 500 makes this 101st edition even a little more special than the others. While McLaren-Honda is having a difficult season in F1, the arrival of the double world champion at the biggest American race revives interest in the Woking team which did not hesitate to make the Spaniard miss the Monaco GP, the two events taking place on May 28 .

If it was Zak Brown, the executive director of McLaren, who first proposed this idea, the American businessman did not expect such eagerness from Fernando Alonso.

"I knew I had opened the door, admitted Zak Brown on ESPN. When it turned out he was interested, I couldn't say no to him anymore. I was serious when we were talking about it jokingly at first, but I wasn't thinking about 2017. Fernando insisted on doing it this year and we immediately thought about putting this together. I thought it wouldn't be easy but still doable. »

“Once I had the approval of the (McLaren) executive committee, I immediately thought about making the project a reality, continued Zak Brown. I contacted Mark Miles (the director ofIndyCar). I really didn't want there to be rumors starting to come out about McLaren and Fernando because we already have enough of them. The hardest part was keeping it a secret but things happened quickly. It only took two weeks before the project was put together. »

Fernando Alonso is currently continuing Indy 500 testing ahead of qualifying this weekend.