Alonso: Le Mans demo fun but 'too fast, narrow' for F1 cars

Fernando Alonso says it could be fun to race a Grand Prix car on Le Mans 13.6-kilomter circuit, but the Alpine driver conceded that the track is "way too fast and narrow" for Formula 1.

Alonso, a two-time Le Mans winner with Toyota, led an Alpine parade last weekend at Le Mans ahead of the 89th running of the endurance classic.

But the Spaniard was also unleased on his own at the wheel of a 2018-spec Renault, enjoying a demo lap around the legendary track, the first ever for an F1 car.

Although the 1966 French Grand Prix took place at Le Mans, the race which was won by Jack Brabham used the short Bugatti loop that did not include the long Hunaudières straight.

Alonso reckoned that a full-blown lap of the full Le Mans circuit onboard an F1 car would yield a sub-3 minute lap, a time significantly faster than Kamui Kobayashi's 2021 pole of 3m23.9s.

"I think the simulation says like something under three minutes," he said. "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 that it was just a demo lap!"

• Read also: Alpine confirms Alonso alongside Ocon for 2022

Alonso suggested that it wouldn't take much to adapt F1 machinery to Le Mans' high-speed characteristics, but the Alpine driver nevertheless expressed his reservations about racing a Grand Prix car at the venue.

"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 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 few things in the track itself.

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

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