McLaren has decided not to join the IndyCar Series full-time next year, ending a long-running evaluation period by the F1 team that stretched through most of this year. McLaren has been exploring entering America’s top open-wheel series as soon as next year, but McLaren CEO Zak Brown got bogged down by the F1 team's on-track struggles and complications in setting the IndyCar deal up. Brown said that the team is “not ready” for IndyCar full-time in '19, but he added it remains interested in exploring it potentially as soon as '20. McLaren driver Fernando Alonso, who is leaving F1 after this year, is still likely to enter the Indianapolis 500 next year as a one-off, and he could be considering a run in the Daytona 500 (Adam Stern, THE DAILY).
NO SURPRISES HERE: AUTOSPORT's Pablo Elizalde noted Alonso "insists McLaren's decision not to compete full time" in IndyCar in '19 "changes nothing for him, as he never wanted to compete the whole season in the first place." He said a full IndyCar season was "never an option" because of the "implication it carries." Alonso: "I would like to race in IndyCar one day, but not next year. Seventeen races, all of them in America, learning everything from zero. That dedication and that kind of work that is required was never in my plans." So far, Alonso has "only committed to finishing" the '18-19 World Endurance Championship season with Toyota, but has "yet to announce any plans beyond that" (AUTOSPORT.com, 10/20).
