Fernando Alonso Tipped To Lose Triple Crown Race To Former F1 Star

Fernando Alonso’s dream even when he was in the latter stages of his F1 career was to win motorsports fabled “Triple Crown” which entails winning the Monaco Grand Prix, the 24 Hours of LeMans and the Indy 500 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Spaniard had won the Monaco Grand Prix on two occasions during an illustrious Formula 1 career that saw him win two Drivers’ world championships.

Alonso added the 24 Hours of LeMans in 2018 and 2019 driving for the Toyota Gazoo Racing taking him one step closer but the Indy 500 win has eluded him despite an impressive debut in 2017 which saw him lead 27 laps before an engine failure. He failed to qualify for the 2019 edition with the McLaren team and now 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud has suggested that the Spaniard could get beaten by another former F1 driver to becoming the only second driver to complete the Triple Crown – the first being Graham Hill.

Juan Pablo Montoya is the only other active driver at the moment to have won two of the three races that make up the Triple Crown and Pagenaud believes the Colombian will beat Alonso to the title. Montoya has won the Monaco Grand Prix once and the Indy 500 race on two occasions and is currently competing in the Weather Tech SportsCar Championship.

He has previously won the 24 Hours of Daytona and has once attempted the 24 Hours of LeMans but it was in the LMP2 category which did not give him a chance to compete for the win. Pagenaud is confident that with his current experience in sports car racing, he will have a great chance of winning the race at LeMans if given a competitive car in the LMP1 category.

“Juan Pablo is just as good as he ever was, quite frankly. Put him in any car, he can step in and be competitive right away. He knows the kind of racing that is so he doesn’t have to learn much, he just needs to be in the right situation. And I assure you he would win it. If I was to put him in the right situation I know he could do it, he will get it done,” Pagenaud said, as quoted on Race Fans.

“Fernando has so much more to learn. So much more he needs to be investing, he needs to have the best engine that year, he needs to have the best team mates to help him out, there’s a lot to do so it’s a lot more complicated,” he added.