When Fernando Alonso almost won the Indy500 in a McLaren

Fernando Alonso started his journey in motorsports back in 1991 with Spanish Kartin Championship, finishing second and then winning in the following season. He then made his Formula 1 debut in 2001 and has been crowned the world championship twice, and continues to remain one of the fastest drivers even in 2023.

However, he is yet to claim the Triple Crown of Motorsport title, something that only one driver has ever achieved in the history of motorsports, Graham Hill.

It is an unofficial event, and a driver is respected with the title when they manage to win the three most prestigious motorsports events - The F1 Monaco Grand Prix, 24 Hours of LeMans, and, The Indy 500. Achieving a victory might not be something for everyone, but Fernando Alonso came extremely close to it.

After his first Fomrula 1 stint, Fernando Alonso peeked into other motorsports and managed to win the 24 Hours of LeMans twice. With this, only the Indy 500 was left in his bag to be crowned the Triple Crown of Motorsport, and it almost happened in 2020.

Fernando Alonso in his McLaren at the 2017 Indy 500 (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Fernando Alonso was in the Arrow McLaren team in the Indy 500 in 2020. The campaign looked good enough for him, however, a crash in one of the practice sessions saw him out, and he qualified only 26th for the 500-mile race.

He raced hard and made it to 15th halfway, however, some clutch-related issues had him down. He was having to manually start the car after every pitstop. He did finish the race, but only in the 21st position.

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Fernando Alonso was appreciative of the McLaren crew despite losing the Indy 500 race

Fernando Alonso mentioned the clutch issue he had faced during the race in McLaren. Regardless, he was comfortable with the machinery that the team had provided him with. He also mentioned that the entire crew was amazing as they were able to make up places all of the time.

"I think the Arrow McLaren SP team was fantastic during the race," Alonso said. "The strategy and pit stops meant we were always gaining positions. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done over the last couple of weeks. We tried to race, but luck was not with us today, but I’m proud of the effort from everyone in the team."

Fernando Alonso is currently competing very well in Formula 1. He has brought up Aston Martin to second place in the championship, and himself at third place. This is, the first time, that his F1 campaign has been going so well since he was with Ferrari back in the V8 days.

A decent finish is expected from him, not the championship right now, however, since Red Bull has been dominating all too well.