2017 Formula 1 Season Paddock

He gets to race against JPM again.

 

I totally get what you are saying, but man it would be hard to walk away from that kind of cash in an noncompetitive car, with no real performance expectation. I understand he wants another title, but it may not be in the cards at this point. This is a great chance for him at Indy, with a foot in the door at Honda, it really might be his best shot at a win there.

For his F1 future, I really only see a couple of options, stick with Mclaren and put money in the bank until they get it together or he decides to retire, or jump into the Mercedes next year. I'm not real confident the Mercedes switch can or will work out. Hamilton doesn't seem to keen on it. The only other viable options would be Ferrari (I doubt he could/would go back) and Red Bull (they seem pretty locked up with their drivers).

 

It makes sense. He's in no position to challenge for a win or gain any real points at Monaco. It's another lost F1 season as far as anyone besides the engineers are concerned. mentioned above: The in with Honda gives him the option to cross streams. It's not out of the ordinary for bored wheelmen to try their hand in another series. It's a tale as old as auto racing. While he doesn't need it, I imagine the "show" money for Indy is a pretty nice check.

 

Sounds to me like Honda is throwing him a bone by getting him into a race he has always wanted to drive in

 

To help with morale.... I hope he wins...

 

...like giving him a chance to be competitive

 

I don't really follow the indy series, but I don't think Honda is dominating there either.

 

Dominating, competitive,,, different things.

 

Honda has won the first two races of the season while Chevy holds poles for both events. Honda had 2 wins last year (both ovals: Indy & Texas), and 3 poles, in 16 events.

 

http://www.indycar.com/Series/IndyCar-Series/Fernando-Alonso

 

I don't think the learning curve is as steep as say, Indy car to stock cars. Few open wheel drivers have succeeded in NASCAR. Same goes for stock cars to open wheel. The only modern example is Kurt Busch's 5th at INDY a couple years back.

 

Think I'm going to have to delete my post. I did say "chance". Guess I forgot to include the or the

 

None of those drivers were particularly successful in F1. Certainly none of the 5 mentioned are comparable in skill to Alonso. The article isn't saying it's impossible to move from F1 to Indycar, rather, "Here are 5 drivers who sucked." The article does mention 7 drivers who succeeded in Indycar.

 

Montoya won the Indy 500 and very nearly won the championship in '15. Does that count? Last year's 500 winner (possibly a fluke) was Rossi. I remember when Mansell moved over to Indy. I thought "what the heck is he doing?" I agree, "great for Alonso..." If he doesn't get caught up in someone else's mess, I'd expect a top 10. More than likely though, he'll get caught up in someone's mess.

 

Keeping him happy ahead of his decisions about next year and beyond

 

Alonso isn't moving to Indy , it's one race

 

I highly doubt Alonso is ready to out and out retire. Could I see him walking away from F1 and going a different direction a la Mark Webbah, absolutely. Alonso is too skilled, too competetive and has enough left in him that he would not want to go out on this note.

The Indy 500 thing is only a single race for this season but it is probably a combination of Honda giving him a shot at getting some real competition and him wanting to dip his toes into something outside F1 to see how it feels.

 

They probably gave him an ultimatum; "get back the car while we still have one!"

 

Firstly, Sub'd, love me some F1.

Second, If Alonso is going to make a debut, in a big race, with a hope at winning, it would be Indy and the teams he is with. Remember guys, he will get like 5 kazillion to figure out WTF hes doing. Andretti Motorsports won it last year with the same motor/chassis combo. Those 2 facts alone make it a real possibility that he does stand a chance at a good finish/win.

My thoughts are he will get caught up in someone's mess, but I do pull for the Spaniard to finish in the top 5.

 

It's a lot of luck and strategy at big wreck races like Indy. Rossi won with a great fuel saving drive and a bit of luck. The team made a great call to leave him out and not fuel up like the front runners had.