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When Fernando Alonso first expressed his desire to attain motorsport’s so-called triple crown in 2017, the foundation was immediately laid for the two-time Formula One champion to chase down victories in some of the world’s iconic races.
Already an outright victor of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in his maiden attempt in 2018 and now having won the 24 Hours of Daytona this season on his second attempt, the Spaniard is quickly racking up the results away from Formula One.
The 37-year-old will have another attempt at the Indianapolis 500 in May. Victory at the Brickyard, along with his triumphs at Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix would complete the triple crown. Another crack Le Mans also looms to end the 2018-19 WEC superseason.
But the triple crown isn’t where the lust for victory ends for Alonso, who arguably has achieved more than his Formula One contemporaries have globally. Testing for NASCAR and the Dakar Rally are further examples of what to expect of the Spaniard, though it is the targeting of Australia’s great race that has interest piqued Down Under.
McLaren boss Zak Brown, who is a part-owner of the Walkinshaw Andretti United Supercars squad, highlighted at the Australian Grand Prix that Alonso is “very interested” in tackling the Bathurst 1000.
“He wants to go and win all the big races and he considers Bathurst to be one of those,” Brown said. “I don’t think you’ll see him in 2019 but I wouldn’t rule him out for the future.”
Given that Brown, for whom which Alonso drove in Formula One at the McLaren team and now for their one-off Indy 500 tilt, has a stake in the Walkinshaw outfit, there would be no difficulty in securing the champion driver a seat.
The question is whether a driver of Alonso’s calibre will attain instant success on a circuit that many have underestimated and have subsequently tasted defeat. Bathurst is not for the faint-hearted, and many international drivers who’ve raced at either the Supercars event or the 12-hour GT race have expressed the immensity of the challenge.
As far as exposure is concerned, a name like Alonso would make Bathurst more of a jewel globally, not that it isn’t already so revered. Not since 2002 has a former Formula One world champion tackled the great race, when Aussie Alan Jones took to the mountain. The 1980 world champion competed at the Bathurst 1000 for almost two decades with only a pair of podiums to show for it and plenty of DNFs.
Given the modern Supercar is what is described as a ‘driver’s car’, with little in the way of electronic aids, and places an emphasis on hustling the weighty machine on tyres nowhere near as developed as the Pirelli and Michelin products that Alonso is used to, the Bathurst 1000 would arguably be more challenging than his other endeavours so far.
One would have thought this nothing more than a pipedream a year or two ago, but to hear the interest expressed by not only the Walkinshaw Andretti United organisation but Alonso himself has had anticipation grow a whole lot bigger for seeing the Spaniard tackle the mountain.
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