Fernando Alonso says he is not too worried by the lack of experience at Arrow McLaren SP for IndyCar’s Indy500 with Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew at his side.
Between the three Arrow McLaren SP drivers set to run in the 104th Indy500 this May, there is one race worth of experience in the competition with Alonso the only one to have raced in the famed race. Both O’Ward and Askew will make their debut.
This lack of any significant experience in the challenging race has led some to question if Arrow McLaren SP will be capable. However, Alonso has said he is not concerned with this, on account of the fact that there is plenty of experience within the team.
One of the more renowned members of the Arrow McLaren SP is Craig Hampson, who has excellent history in the series, and, coincidentally, will be Alonso’s engineer. Hampson played a key role in Sebastien Bourdais’ success in the early 2000’s.
The team also has several other well-known figures working for it, like Sam Schmidt, and Gil de Ferran. It is for this reason that Alonso feels his Indy500 outing, as well as the whole of Arrow McLaren SP’s, are in good hands.
“I think, yes, I should touch on all three of us, we are lacking maybe some experience, that’s a fact,” said Alonso. “We have different characteristics. I think Oliver has a tremendous talent that will help to discover things in the team and will guide in some of the direction that maybe by his rawness will teach everyone else.
“Pato is a very brave guy and very talented guy with no fears on anything, and that’s something, also, that will be important to deal with and to learn from him, as well. And I have maybe the experience of many years of racing but not on that kind of racing.
“At the end, I think we need to help each other and we need to follow that the team itself has more experience with all the drivers together. To work with Sam, with Craig, with Gil de Ferran, there are personalities there that they have all the experience in the car and they have won many, many things there.
“I think all together and all pushing in the same direction, we should be quite a good team, a good effort. I’m confident that things will work.” Alonso then elaborated on how he feels about Hampson being part of the effort for IndyCar and also Indy500.
“That was one of the biggest parts of the decision [to join the team], as well,” said Alonso. “Everyone was telling me that Craig Hampson was the man to work with, with so much experience, and making the difference in many of the races and championships on the last couple of decades in IndyCar.
“Obviously that’s very attractive, to work with this kind of people that make a difference, and you can learn a lot from a driver point of view, as well, from the team and the engineers, and then the COTA test.
“Obviously I wanted to wait, as well, for the COTA test, even if everything was already done and we all agree on all the terms, COTA test was also a nice thing to really look at the team from the outside, how things were working together and gluing together. I think they had a very, very positive test, and that was also good news for me, as well.”
Here’s what Fernando Alonso said regarding Andretti-Honda
Here’s Josef Newgarden on title rivals for 2020 IndyCar
Here’s Simon Pagenaud on Indy500
