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“At those speeds and talking about safety standards”– Fernando Alonso claims Le Mans “too narrow” for F1

Tanish Chachra
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"At those speeds and talking about safety standards"– Fernando Alonso claims Le Mans "too narrow" for F1

“At those speeds and talking about safety standards”– Fernando Alonso doesn’t think Le Mans as it is would be suitable for an F1 race.

Le Mans is one of the most prestigious stages in the history of motorsports that many Formula 1 drivers fancy participating in it once in their career.

Fernando Alonso, who won the competition twice in 2018 and 2019, talks about F1 holding a race at the Circuit de la Sarthe, and according to him, without some crucial changes, it wouldn’t be suitable, after he did a demo lap over there in his Alpine.

“I think the simulation [lap time] says like something under three minutes,” Alonso told reporters in Belgium, quoted by Motorsport.com. “But then you have to execute the lap.”

“And it was not that easy because honestly with the F1 car, I felt the long straights were a little bit unusual for our tyres, our cars. The braking points after the long straights were a bit tricky because the front tyres tried to lock up and things like that.”

“So if you really go for it and you push, it will be quite stressful. So in a way, I was happy it was just a demo lap!”

It could be fun

Though Alonso suggests that F1 racing over there could be entertaining, it is too narrow and too fast in some of the straights that it needs adjustments.

“It could be fun for sure to race there. I think it will not take too much in terms of preparation or engineering to go to tracks like Le Mans,” he said.

“Even with a very short time, I think our car was basically prepared to do that demo lap. And it was close to a race situation. But I don’t know, at those speeds and talking about safety standards, we will probably have to change a few things on the track itself.”

“It would be way too fast and way too narrow in some of the sections on the straights. So potentially it would require some changes, more on track than basically from the F1 community.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra

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Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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