Fernando Alonso’s announcement that he’ll be racing the Indianapolis 500 instead of this year’s Monaco Grand Prix came as quite a shock.
It’s very rare that we see a current F1 driver racing something different – Nico Hulkenberg winning Le Mans in 2015 being a rare example.
But, it’s actually a really cool thing. These are big names, and they’re trying a new car, helping promote F1 and bringing their talents to other series.
Sadly, the fact Monaco and the Indy 500 clash has always prevented modern drivers from trying it out, but Alonso’s done the surprising thing of ditching Monaco for IndyCar.
It’s a one-off, but it’s sparked a big discussion in F1. Hamilton has now said he’d like to try other forms of racing, but admitted he’d never skip an F1 race for it.
He said:
“I think it’s great that a driver is able to do that. I think us drivers should be able to do more than one series. There was a period of time in the past where there were drivers doing multiple series. I think it’s pretty cool that he’s doing it.
“I wouldn’t miss any of the races in F1, definitely continue to do all the races. I’d like to do MotoGP. I’d like to ride a MotoGP race. Probably a Nascar race like the Daytona 500 maybe.”
He has already tried Nascar once after doing a car-swap with Tony Stewart a few years ago, back in his McLaren days.
It’d be great to see how someone like Hamilton would fare in another car or bike, in the same way that we can’t wait to watch Alonso at the when of an IndyCar machine.
He’s not the only one to express Nascar interest too, Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo have also said they’d like to try it one day.
