Alonso: winning third F1 title remains top priority

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After his début outing in the Indianapolis 500 MIle race last weekend, Fernando Alonso will to his day job at the Canadian Grand Prix.

And while the Indy 500 has certainly been quite a buzz - and a roaring success until his engine failed 21 laps from the finish - Alonso hasn't had his head turned by all the American razzmatazz.

"My first priority is Formula 1 and to win my third world championship," he insisted in an interview with The Mail On Sunday newspaper this week.

"My second priority was to enjoy the experience of Indy 500, and I managed to do that," he added.

His team mate Takuma Sato went on to win the race, confirming that Alonso had a winning car for the race. That's more than can be said about his situation in Formula 1.

"[Fans] want to see me at the front more, winning more. But when I went to Indy it was a totally different environment," he said. "The people still respected me a lot. They expected something to happen on the track."

Andretti: 'Alonso is at his peak and wasting his time'

By contrast, after six races in 2017 McLaren is the only team yet to score any points. It's an embarrassing situation for the squad, and for the two-time world champion.

"I’m happy but for one thing," said Alonso when asked about how he felt about returning to his Formula 1 seat. "The only thing missing is being competitive.

"It is all you can ask for as a driver, and it is frustrating when you do not have that."

Alonso seems to have bad timing when it comes to moving teams, from McLaren to Renault to Ferrari and now back to McLaren. Ferrari are now in a strong position to win the 2017 title, but Alonso insists he has no regrets leaving the Scuderia.

‘I made each move from one team to another because I felt it was right in my heart," he said.

"If you go back 17 or 18 years, I was travelling in my dad’s van to go-kart races in Italy. I could have been working in a supermarket at home in Oviedo. And now I come to America and the people follow me everywhere.

"I don’t agree with 'What a shame. Alonso should have done this or that.'" he added. "I have won 97 podiums and two titles. I think I’m doing okay.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.