2019 Indy 500: Fernando Alonso rejected McLaren’s offer to buy him a ride

By Asher Fair | May 21, 2019

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - NOVEMBER 11: Fernando Alonso of Spain and McLaren F1 looks on, on the drivers parade before the Formula One Grand Prix of Brazil at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on November 11, 2018 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /

Fernando Alonso rejected McLaren’s offer to buy him a ride in the 103rd running of the Indy 500 after he failed to qualify for the race.

After failing to qualify for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, McLaren Racing’s Fernando Alonso rejected his team’s offer to buy him a ride in IndyCar‘s most prestigious race.

Alonso recorded a four-lap average speed of 227.353 miles per hour around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana in the Sunday’s Last Row Bump Day qualifying session after he failed to lock himself into the field by finishing in the top 30 in Saturday’s qualifying session.

The 37-year-old Spaniard sat on the bubble in the provisional 33rd position on the starting grid for the race ahead of the final qualifying run in this session. Juncos Racing’s Kyle Kaiser completed the session’s final qualifying run with a shocking four-lap average speed of 227.372 miles per hour to bump the global racing icon out of the field.

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Shortly after Alonso failed to qualify for the race, McLaren CEO Zak Brown confirmed that the team would not buy him a ride in the race from one of the 33 teams that successfully locked themselves into the filed.

But this announcement did not come before McLaren reportedly offered to buy the the two-time Formula 1 champion a ride in the field.

However, Alonso rejected this offer, as he would not have felt comfortable with the team doing this considering the fact that it would have meant that he would be replacing a driver who had successfully qualified for the race and the fact that he would be driving for another team.

McLaren reportedly considered trying to land Alonso the ride of Oriol Servia. Servia qualified his #77 Honda in 19th place for this race driving for Team Stange Racing with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and McLaren already have a partnership with Arrow.

Here is what Brown had to say about Alonso rejecting this offer, according to ESPN.

"“Fernando has done nothing wrong, he needs to be in the race and should be in the race, and we do have a lot of partners who would like to be in the race. Do we buy him a seat? Well, he said `I know what it takes to get into this race, it doesn’t feel right to me to take another driver out that has earned it because my team has bought the seat.’ There is a lot of pride within Fernando and McLaren.”"

Hats off to Alonso and McLaren for handling such an utterly disappointing and embarrassing situation with class.

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With the “Will McLaren still buy Fernando Alonso a ride in the Indianapolis 500?” saga officially in the books, it appears safe to say that the field of 33 for this year’s running of the crown jewel on the IndyCar schedule is set. The race is set to be broadcast live on NBC from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on Memorial Day Sunday, May 26, and it is scheduled to get underway at around 12:30 p.m. ET later that afternoon.