It’s here! It’s finally here! The moment of truth. The moment that all hot take artists have been waiting for. Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso is finally going to go drive an IndyCar, and you can watch Alonso’s first IndyCar test online tomorrow.
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, Alonso is skipping the Monaco Grand Prix, which he’s already won twice and has zero hope of winning in McLaren’s bad car this year, to try and win a second leg of the Triple Crown of Motorsport: the Indy 500. And ooh, does he want it. (We want know who he’s doing the 24 Hours of Le Mans with, too, because you know Leg No. 3 is now on the list.)
But will he be any good on Indy’s oval? That’s why we’re all going to be glued to a computer screen tomorrow for this pre-Indianapolis 500 oval test. This Wednesday, May 3, starting at 9:30 a.m. ET, you can tune into Alonso’s test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway here:
Alternately, we’ve embedded the YouTube link right here for easy access:
Mario Andretti, Kevin Lee and Robin Miller will provide commentary until noon, and then the stream of practice will continue sans chatty voices from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Several interviews are planned for that time, including with members of Andretti Autosport and its related teams, plus former Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran and McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
It’s sometimes hard to draw too many conclusions about how a team will do based on a test session. They speed up and slow down, running through different scenarios to make sure the car’s ready for whatever will happen at the Indianapolis 500.
But we’ll at least be able to tell if Alonso’s happier driving a Honda-powered car that actually works, so there’s that. Good luck, Fernando.