F1 Driver Fernando Alonso to Race in the 2017 Indianapolis 500

[prisonermonkeys]

Alonso's Indy 500 livery has been revealed:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/129293/alonso-indy-500-livery-revealed

It's intended to be a replica of Johnny Rutherford's orange design from 1976.

 

[IforceV8]

 

[catamount39]

Orange McLaren! Look at that beauty!

Anybody else spot the "kiwi" on the nose and the "Great Britain"?

 

[IforceV8]

http://www.racer.com/ will be streaming the Alonso test today, time unknown.

High School senior pose.

I wonder if Jenna Fryer's daughter is one of the 35,000 people watching a single car test.

EDIT: make that 55k Imagine how many would be watching if Danica or the Taylor bros were here instead.

 

[spyrrari]

Nice 1st few laps Fernando... 👍




Spy.

 

[IforceV8]

So far, so good.

They need to hurry his test along because rain is a couple of hours away.

 

[Liquid]

Horrible livery on a horrible looking spec chassis.

I just hope he does well. What are his current speeds like, performance wise?

 

[Roo]

What are his current speeds like, performance wise?

He's been completing his rookie orientation, so he's given target speeds - laps of 205-210mph to begin with, for example. The last runs were targeted at 215-220, which he achieved, but he's not been allowed to go as fast as possible today. Fastest lap was a 222mph; for reference, a back of the grid slot last year was a 222.1.

 

[IforceV8]

I just hope he does well. What are his current speeds like, performance wise?

Fastest lap in rookie orientation last year was 224.179/40.1465, Fred is at 222.548/40.4408.That time would have him P2 last year. 1st day of practice last year was 228.978/39.3051.

 

[Michelin Man]

Loving the orange livery, looks damn good . Pleasantly surprised, as a I almost expected them to simply slap on the livery from the MCL32 F1 machine, but made their own instead, and it's much better IMO.

Alonso seems to have taken to it very well so far it seems (but then again this is Alonso ). will be interesting to see how things progress.

 

[IforceV8]

Fernando will need a week off, he did more laps today (88) than he has done in his last 3 GP's.

 

[Clark]

Nandie went a bit camp inadvertently

 

[Silver Arrows]

What's really underrated about the look of the McLaren Indy is Fred's helmet with the 70's Apple II style stripes. Looks good!

 

[GTFan24]

Looks 100x better than the joke that is that OTHER car he drives that should not be mentioned.

 

[Michelin Man]

Could also tell that Nando seems to be enjoying himself, and generally happier testing an Indycar, compared to how he's been in F1 so far this year (perhaps unsurprisingly).

 

[IforceV8]

Looking at the radar I think we are done for the day.

or not.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Alonso's Indy 500 livery has been revealed:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/129293/alonso-indy-500-livery-revealed

It's intended to be a replica of Johnny Rutherford's orange design from 1976.

Other than being all McLaren orange I just don't see what's specific about that car/year

There were several cars painted entirely in that colour and, dare I say it, many of them looked faaaar better than this lump

 

[IforceV8]

I'm not sure how much closer you can get to a 41 yr old car.

 

[Tornado]

They could have painted it the same, for starters.

 

[TenEightyOne]

They could have painted it the same, for starters.

To my mind it looks like every one of the all-McLaren-orange race cars in this quick image search, perhaps '76 Rutherford is the last time an all-McLaren-Orange car ran the Indy 500? I have no idea, @Dotini's usually the man for that kind of info

 

[IforceV8]

They could have painted it the same, for starters.

Instead of orange, orange perhaps?

 

[Tornado]

To my mind it looks like every one of the all-McLaren-orange race cars in this quick image search, perhaps '76 Rutherford is the last time an all-McLaren-Orange car ran the Indy 500? I have no idea, @Dotini's usually the man for that kind of info

View attachment 645207

The livery McLaren ran in 1974 is much closer to this grabbag of cues than the 1976 car Alonso's is supposedly a replica of. That's the first one in the last row of that pic. 1976 just happened to be McLaren's last entry in Indy that won.

Instead of orange, orange perhaps?

Perhaps even the white that the 1976 car had on the front and rear that this "replica" seems to have forgotten to include.

 

[IforceV8]

Perhaps even the white that the 1976 car had on the front and rear that this "replica" seems to have forgotten to include.

PM called it a replica, McLaren didnt.

 

[Tornado]

And yet you're defending it all the same. Strange.

 

[IforceV8]

And yet you're defending it all the same. Strange.

And you are still a troll, shocking...

 

[Tornado]

And you are still a troll, shocking...

So when you said "I'm not sure how much closer you can get to a 41 yr old car," you actually meant "you're right, it's not really a replica of the livery from 1976 like Interludes said it was intended to be"; and when you said "Instead of orange, orange perhaps?," you actually meant "you're right, it's not as close as it could be to the 1976 car since it's missing some of the distinctive coloring that the car from 1976 had as my own photos in this thread show".



Glad we cleared that up.



Edit: I was curious where the hell that came from, so I poked. Dude. Before this thread I've responded to you a total of 5 times in four years. Are you that insecure about arguments on the internet?

 

[IforceV8]

So when you said "I'm not sure how much closer you can get to a 41 yr old car," you actually meant "you're right, it's not really a replica of the livery from 1976 like Interludes said it was intended to be";

No, its orange with blue numbers just like the 76. I never noticed the wing fences were white on the 76

and when you said "Instead of orange, orange perhaps?," you actually meant "you're right, it's not as close as it could be to the 1976 car since it's missing some of the distinctive color features that the car from 1976 had as my own photos in this thread show".

Didnt notice it until after you mentioned the white, after I posted.

Glad we cleared that up.

I'm fine with it as a tribute car. I'm not going to lose sleep over the fact that the wing fences are the wrong color. If you are then I suggest you write them a note. https://www.andrettiautosport.com/contact

 

[Dotini]

To my mind it looks like every one of the all-McLaren-orange race cars in this quick image search, perhaps '76 Rutherford is the last time an all-McLaren-Orange car ran the Indy 500? I have no idea, @Dotini's usually the man for that kind of info

View attachment 645207

Team McLaren entries for the seventies:
'70, Carl Williams, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue (entered by Bruce McLaren Motor Racing) - 9th
'70, Peter Revson, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue (entered by Bruce McLaren Motor Racing) - 22nd
'71, Peter Revson, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue/White, 2nd
'72, Denis Hulme, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue/White - 17th
'72, Gordon Johncock, McLaren-Offy, Orange/White/Blue - 20th
'72, Peter Revson, McLaren-Offy, Orange/White/Blue - 31st
'73, Rutherford, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue/White - 9th
'73 Peter Revson, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue/White - 31st
'74, Rutherford, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue - 1st Place
'74, David Hobbs, McLaren-Offy, Black/White - 5th
'75, Rutherford, McLaren-Offy, Green/White/Orange - 2nd
'75, Lloyd Ruby, McLaren- Offy, White/Blue/Red- 32nd
'76, Rutherford, McLaren-Offy, Orange/Blue - 1st Place
'77, Rutherford, McLaren Cosworth, White/Blue/Red - 33rd
'78, Rutherford, McLaren-Cosworth, White/Blue/Red - 13th
'79, Rutherford, McLaren-Cosworth, White/Blue/Red - 18th
('80, Rutherford, Chaparral-Cosworth, Yellow/Red/Black - 1st Place)

Edit:
The seventies saw the first 200 mph lap. Tom "The Gas Man" Sneva qualified at 202.156, 1978, Penske-Cosworth.

 

[Leadfoot530]

Are we seriously arguing over the paint scheme of a one-off Indycar that may or may not be based off an older McLaren?

Honestly, I prefer the "Europeaness" discussion over this...

All in all, a good solid first day for 'nando. (No pun intended, honest!) It'll be interesting to see how he does during practice and qualifying, as well as how he does in traffic.

 

[[Nor]MclarenF1]

He looked quite comfortable with the car. You could see how he started to get gradually closer to the wall as they started to loosen the reigns on him and gave him higher target speeds. So far it looks promising.