SEBRING, Florida — Fernando Alonso prepared for his highly anticipated return to the Indianapolis 500 this year by winning another major event Friday night: the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the sixth round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship sports car season.
Co-driving with Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, Alonso’s No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing machine completed the race constrained by the eight-hour time limit with a winning margin of one lap over the sister No. 7 Toyota with 253 laps completed. Rain and wet conditions forced the switch to the time limit instead of the distance.
It was Alonso’s first time driving at Sebring International Raceway and the race ended under rainy conditions. Adjusting to Sebring in the wet can be very tough on first-time drivers, but Alonso was up to the challenge.
“I think adapting the car is always a challenge to different circuits, traffic management and night driving,” said Alonso. “I think the night plus the traffic made this place quite hard to understand and to be efficient on lap time, and that was the biggest challenge.”
Nakajima was in the car when the rains came down in the last 20 minutes of the race and brought the car to the finish. Driving in the wet, at night and at Sebring all combined to make for a very interesting experience at the end of the race.
“It was like driving on the ice or something like that,” Nakajima said. “Especially all the concrete parts on the back straight and the start/finish straight. The start/finish straight, I couldn’t go flat out because the car was just sliding everywhere. Even on maximum wet tires, we had no grip at all. The GT cars were going faster than us easily so it was difficult. We had to take maximum care to not lose the race, but even so it was really tricky out there, especially when you have rain in the night. You have almost no visibility and you don’t see the track, you don’t see standing water but even without standing water it was like ice.”
This is the No. 8 Toyota’s third win in the 2018-19 WEC season and Toyota’s fifth out of six races so far. The next race in the WEC season is the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on May 4.
Before then, Alonso plans to test his No. 66 McLaren Chevrolet twice in preparation for the 103rd Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge in May. The two-time Formula One champion is scheduled to drive in a private test at Texas Motor Speedway in early April before participating in the open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 24.
“Yes, I’m looking forward to it,” said Alonso, who was named Indy 500 rookie of the year in 2017 when he qualified fifth and led 27 laps in the race before a mechanical failure ended his race in 24th place. “I think that’s the biggest goal this year, to be competitive in the Indy 500 together with McLaren. I’m happy with the program, how everything has taken place and the guys that are onboard at the moment.
“It’s going to be challenging because there are ultra-competitive teams in the series, but at the same time, we are all committed and determined to do well.”
Practice for the Indy 500 begins May 15, with two days of qualifying to set the 33-car field on May 18-19. The 200-lap race airs live at 11 a.m. ET Sunday, May 26 on NBC and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. Tickets for all month of May activities at Indianapolis Motor Speedway are available at IMS.com.