Fernando Alonso’s 2020 Indy 500 entry revealed
Fernando Alonso’s entry for the 2020 Indianapolis 500 has been formally revealed as the two-time F1 World Champion attempts to seal the fabled ‘Triple Crown’.
It will be Alonso’s third visit to ‘The Brickyard’ after he made his high-profile debut in 2017 and failed to qualify for the 2019 event when McLaren opted to go it alone with its entry to its cost.
For 2020 though McLaren Racing has made the full-time move into the IndyCar Series in collaboration with stalwart outfit Sam Schmidt Motorsports, competing under the Arrows McLaren SP moniker with drivers Oliver Askew and Pato O’Ward.
The Chevrolet-engined line-up will swell to three cars for this year’s Indy 500 to accommodate Alonso, who will first look to avenge last year’s humbling outcome when a catalogue of errors saw him knocked out of qualifying at the first opportunity.
Instead, he will look to show the form that had him leading the race at times on his debut in 2017 with an entry prepared by Andretti Autosports before a Honda engine failure let him down.
Though Askew and O’Ward pay homage to the team’s McLaren involvement with its very recognisable Papaya Orange paint scheme identical to the company’s F1 efforts, Alonso will instead run a more sponsor-heavy model in a white and green paint scheme, with backing the Ruoff mortgage company and Alonos’s own Kimoa brand.
Should Alonso win the race he will become only the second person in motorsport history to win the Indy 500, Le Mans 24 Hours and the Monaco Grand Prix, after Graham Hill.
The 2020 Indy 500 was originally set to take place in its late May slot on the 31st, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed this back to August 23rd where doors will be opened to half of the venue’s fan capacity.
FIRST LOOK.
— Arrow McLaren SP (@ArrowMcLarenSP) June 30, 2020
Take the first glance at @alo_oficial's No. 66 Ruoff Mortgage Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet for the 104th #Indy500. pic.twitter.com/cwmCPmeiXc
