Barely a week after it was confirmed that Fernando Alonso will race at January’s Daytona 24 Hours, it has been revealed the Spaniard could drive for Toyota at next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Motorsport reports that Alonso recently had a seat fitting at Toyota Motorsport’s factory in Cologne and will first secure a drive of the Toyota TS050 Hybrid at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s rookie test in Bahrain on November 19.
Alonso has made no secret of his desire to win motorsport’s Triple Crown – the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans and Indy 500.
As soon as Alonso announced he will stay with the McLaren Formula One team throughout the 2018 F1 season, Toyota has expressed interest in acquiring his skills for June’s famous endurance race.
“We are always interested in talking to top drivers and Pascal [Vasselon, TMG technical director] has a good relationship with Fernando going back to his days with Michelin in F1,” said Toyota team director Rob Leupen.
If Alonso is serious about winning Le Mans, landing a drive with Toyota is essentially his only option. The Japanese automaker will be the only factory team running an LMP1 car at the race, following Porsche’s dramatic departure from the sport at the end of the current season.
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