Alonso: Easier adding 'fun' WEC races to schedule than F1

Fernando Alonso is happy to have more sports car races on his schedule than additional Formula 1 grand prix events “because they are more fun” as he juggles two FIA world championship campaigns in 2018.

With F1’s new bosses looking to expand the existing schedule to at least 25 races in the coming years, Alonso said last year he would rather retire from the series than take on such a hectic schedule.

But after signing a deal with Toyota for the FIA World Endurance Championship ‘super season’, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, plus an appearance in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, Alonso is set to have taken part in at least 28 professional races by the end of the year.

Asked why he had changed his approach and was now happy to add the extra sports car events to his schedule, Alonso replied: “Because they are fun races!”

Having criticised F1’s “sad” predictability days earlier, Alonso continued to explain how the series felt too defined by each team’s ability as opposed to how the drivers performed on-track, but felt that changes to the tyre compound selection could help improve races.

“Formula 1 is predictable,” Alonso said. "Formula 1 is about constructors’ championship. There are different teams in different rows of the grid, but there is not much more that the driver can do. That’s the sad thing.

“That’s why the tyre could be a factor [in F1]. The tyres are very good this year. The tyres are performing better than ever. Maybe the tyre is in a way a solution.


“If you spread the compounds and you make creativity into the strategy for the engineers. Maybe that will help the sport that at the moment is a little bit down.”

Alonso’s next sports car duties with Toyota come in early June at the Le Mans test day, which takes place between the upcoming F1 races in Monaco and Canada.