• Dakar.Alonso reveals his calendar
  • 2020.Dakar ... and Ferrari?

Andre Agassi , as he told Open , his biography, burned sneakers before the finals. He went out to the hotel terrace and set them on fire. It relaxed him. The flames purified their fears. What Fernando Alonso did , minutes from getting into Formula 1, was to go over his monkey and cut or tear off every single thread he found, without leaving even one in the middle of a liturgy, to wrap his suit, with bullfighting essences. Silence, concentration, respect for the trade. Manias of a type, like most athletes, quite superstitious. That competitive tension, that pinch in the stomach, was lost in F1. That's why he said enough a year ago, tired of his passion. Not to drive, as it continues to show every day, but the demanding bustle (trips, press, commitments) that the motoring elite carries.

He got off with two world titles and a final stretch of worries at McLaren , far from the fight for victories. This year the English team failed him again (his stormy relationship since 2007 would give for a movie), leaving him without a place in the 500 Miles of Indianapolis . It was better with Toyota, winner of the Resistance World Cup this year and again of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

With the Japanese team he will try to face his new sports challenge: the Dakar . We talked about the most famous rally on the planet, a test of legend where speed, adventure, orientation and mechanical ability are mixed. All on unpredictable terrain, away from the asphalt where Alonso has developed his entire professional career. In the new edition, the Dakar leaves South America , the destination of help when the terrorist threat made the traditional African journey impossible. It will be in the dunes of Saudi Arabia, a kingdom that seeks to soften its exterior image through sport.

Both the organization of the Dakar (ASO), the same French company that organizes the Tour and the Tour, as the Saudi authorities have been trying to seduce the Spanish for months to serve as the flag of the race at its premiere in the country. Envoys from Riyadh went cold in the Six Hours of Spa after the pilot's track. Yesterday Toyota announced Alonso's preparation plans for the next Dakar, without making official a participation that seems safe. These days it already accelerates through Namibia with the car (Hilux) that the Japanese firm will take to the mythical raid and in September (days 13 and 14) it will take the exit of Harrismith 400, a South African rally. Your next stop would be in Morocco.

Desert Preparation

Steps all oriented to take the measure of a relentless competition, where a world rally champion like Sebastien Loeb has not yet managed to win, after four attempts. Carlos Sainz , also a land teacher, has conquered two among serious accidents, treacherous breakdowns and more than one disgust.

Alonso has surprised his own surroundings. Not because of the effort he is putting in the jump to the arenas - it is competitive even in a basketball match - but for facing a test where aspiring to victory in his debut seems like an utopia. Quite merit would have to cross the finish line to the first. This is how he assumes it, facing it as a personal challenge, beyond the economic incentive, far removed from the earnings of Formula 1 . From there they continue to receive calls and messages in recent weeks, with the teams using their name to put pressure on their current pilots. Ferrari does it with Sebastian Vettel and also Red Bull, the only team capable of fighting the victory of Mercedes on Sunday.

In F1 they fantasize about the possibility that the Spaniard was a partner in 2020 of Max Verstappen : the veteran champion against the rebel child. A 2007 Alonso-Hamilton reissued. Too much thunder for little prize, thinks the defendant, who would only return to the circuits if they offered him a single-seater candidate for the title. And neither the Ferrari nor the Red Bull are now, nor do they seem to be next year before the overwhelming (and tedious) dominance of Lewis Hamilton . In 2021 the regulations change and then Alonso could look in search of that car that will take him to his coveted third World Cup.

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  • Ferrari
  • Toyota
  • Resistance world
  • Sebastian Vettel
  • McLaren
  • Max Verstappen
  • Lewis Hamilton
  • Carlos Sainz
  • 24 hours of Le Mans
  • sports
  • Fernando Alonso
  • Dakar Rally
  • Formula 1

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