Motorsport renaissance man and two-time Formula One world champ Fernando Alonso was part of the winning No. 8 Toyota TS050 team that finally—after years of almost winning and absolute heartbreak—won Le Mans. Now that he’s got two of the three wins for the Triple Crown of Motorsport, it’s obvious where he’s heading next: Indy.
While Toyota didn’t have much in the way of competition this year with only three of the eight privateer LMP1s in its class even finishing, it was hard not to tear up when the No. 8 made it safely across the line. This team has been through hell with a series of heartbreaking failures at Le Mans, one of which was right before their required final lap.
It also ticked off a major achievement for a dude we like. No. 8 driver Fernando Alonso got his second win in racing’s three most historic and important “Triple Crown” races: Formula One at Monaco, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Indianapolis 500. So, it doesn’t surprise me at all to hear that him say that he’s heading back to Indy soon.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s true the Triple Crown is on, we have two, let’s see if we can achieve the Indy 500 soon,” Alonso confirmed to Motorsport.com after the race.
On that note, Alonso! Alonso Alonso Alonso Alonso Alonso Alonso. Have we said Fernando Alonso’s name enough? No? Well, you better get used to it, as Alonsomania is nowhere near close to over. Alonsooooooo!
Look, I appreciate what Alonso is doing. He’s beloved all over the world for his willingness to hop into new race cars and his ability to pick up a completely different style of car quickly. He’s the extremely fast throwback drive-anything guy we’ve been desperately missing from racing in recent years, and it’s exciting as hell.
Yet even I had to admit that there the sheer number of Alonso mentions in the coverage of this race was a bit overwhelming. At one point, I asked our photographer at Le Mans Kurt Bradley if he had a photo of Alonso eating a sandwich or something, as that would probably be a post this year.
Perhaps the most egregious example was from qualifying, when ridiculously quick No. 8 driver Kazuki Nakajima set a ludicrously fast qualifying lap that was two full seconds ahead of the fastest lap of Toyota’s other No. 7 car, yet the giant herd of media mobbed around Alonso after qualifying was over. We’re all curious how Alonso’s getting along in a new car, but I still want to hear from Le Mans’ fastest driver after qualifying is done.
But we better get used to it, as we also want to see Alonso tick off a Triple Crown win. It’s been way too long since a racer has won all three, so it’s about time somebody did and I’m rooting for Alonso to pull it off. While we never got to ask Alonso about his sandwich preferences or measure the exact sweatiness level of his face in muggy central France instead of, I don’t know, checking up on the hundreds of other drivers on the grid, we did grab a few shots of the man, the myth and the soon-to-be legend with his team this weekend for you to enjoy.