Alonso switches focus to Le Mans after ‘sad, frustrating’ DNF

Fernando Alonso says he’s already turned his attention to his Le Mans 24 Hours debut next weekend after being forced to retire from the Canadian Grand Prix due to a broken charge air cooler pipe on his McLaren.

The two-time Formula 1 world champion had been hoping to celebrate his 300th race in style but was denied by a mechanical failure on his McLaren which was later diagnosed as a loss of boost pressure caused by a broken pipe in his exhaust system.

Alonso switches focus to Le Mans after ‘sad, frustrating’ DNF

Fernando Alonso says he’s already turned his attention to his Le Mans 24 Hours debut next weekend after being forced to retire from the Canadian Grand Prix due to a broken charge air cooler pipe on his McLaren.

The two-time Formula 1 world champion had been hoping to celebrate his 300th race in style but was denied by a mechanical failure on his McLaren which was later diagnosed as a loss of boost pressure caused by a broken pipe in his exhaust system.

Alonso’s second straight retirement, having also failed to finish in Monaco with a gearbox problem, has left the Spaniard downbeat as he continues to weigh up his future options with strong rumours linking him to a move to IndyCar next year.

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“It’s sad, frustrating and I’m disappointed with this result. We weren’t competitive this weekend,” Alonso said. “I’m flying tonight [Sunday] to Le Mans for another experience and hopefully a good race for us. Obviously we are leading the World Endurance Championship after the race in Spa and we are definitely focused on that right now after the retirement.”

When asked about his future being in F1 he responded: “We’ll see, we’ll see. I hope so. We definitely need to find more performance in the car, we need to find a way to become also competitive and reliability is also important.

“Now we’ve retired the car from seventh in Monaco and tenth in Canada so we lost points in the last two races. There are a few areas in the car to keep improving, keep working, and let’s see what will happen in the next couple of months.”

During the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, McLaren CEO Zak Brown confirmed the Woking-based squad was seriously considing a move into IndyCar in a tie-up with Andretti or RLL Racing for 2019.

Brown moved to play down suggestions Alonso would be a primary factor in a potential team but is eager to keep him at McLaren for 2019. Alonso is believed to have a contract extension option with the British team for next season but it remains uncertain whether it could also apply to a switch to the US series.

“He loves Formula 1, he loves World Endurance and Daytona, so hopefully we will keep Fernando in the McLaren environment in some way, shape or form,” Brown said.

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