Fernando Alonso says he ruled out a full-time IndyCar seat for 2019 as it would have been “too demanding”, and would not have been able to give it his full dedication.
McLaren weighed up whether to enter IndyCar full-time next year but revealed last Friday that it had chosen not to take that path.
Alonso revealed in the aftermath that a full-time switch to IndyCar was never on his agenda, despite having run a private road course test at Barber last month.
He expanded further on his choice, reckoning that he would not have been able to dedicate the required attention onto any potential McLaren effort.
“I think in the summertime I was thinking but it was always linked to the team, McLaren, as we talked a lot at the beginning of the year with the plans for F1 and I tried always to share my thoughts with the team,” he said.
“Eventually it came to my mind that it was the time to stop Formula 1 so they were the first ones to know so they had time to do whatever plans they were thinking for the future.
“It was the same for IndyCar, I had in my mind maybe doing IndyCar, Indy 500 or something for next year.
“They were doing similar observations and thoughts about the future for the team so we were talking and linked all the time.
“But again eventually one day in my case I thought that it was too demanding next year, I am not sure about the future, but next year the commitment to 17 races was too much.
“With that dedication and that amount of work that we need to put in to be competitive in that series starting from zero I felt it was too much and I share with the team that.”
Alonso is nonetheless open to the idea of returning to the Indianapolis 500, having run competitively during his debut with McLaren/Andretti in 2017.
It is the last piece of the jigsaw that he required in order to complete motorsport’s Triple Crown.
“It is a possibility and I would love to do it,” he said.
“To be honest it is a race which was magic last year and I think it still has the biggest appeal for me especially now after winning Le Mans with me being only one step away from the Triple Crown.
“I would love to do it but I don’t know if it is going to be next year or in the future but it is part of the project in next year’s calendar.”
