When Alonso and Norris almost tasted success at Daytona 24 Hours

The forthcoming Daytona 24 Hours features a plethora of ex-F1 stars who have all made the transition to endurance racing.  

Jenson Button, Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean are just a few names in this year’s 24-hour race, which takes place at the prestigious Daytona Speedway as part of America’s IMSA SportsCar Championship on the 27-28 January.  

However, it is far from the first time F1 stars have driven Daytona. Juan Pablo Montoya and Martin Brundle are previous Daytona winners, while 2018 was certainly an all-star lineup as double F1 world champion Fernando Alonso teamed up with Zak Brown’s United Autosports. 

It was part of Alonso’s “quest to win Le Mans”. The Spaniard was falling out of love with F1, as his McLaren team had just finished next to bottom in the 2017 championship and Alonso was intent on returning to the top step in any way he could. 

His eyes were firmly on claiming the illustrious Triple Crown of Motorsport – awarded for winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours and a feat which has only been achieved by Graham Hill – but Alonso’s first attempt at completing two-thirds of that goal was an unsuccessful trip to the Brickyard where he retired from the 2017 Indy 500.  

Nevertheless, Le Mans was next on his radar and Alonso, already a Monaco GP winner, saw Daytona as a great way to prepare for what was to come in 2018. 

“We were in Singapore,” said McLaren CEO Brown in 2017, “got our F1 deal done, and as soon as we mentally crossed the bridge of getting that sealed, it wasn’t two minutes later before he said, ‘I wanna do Daytona’. 

“As Fernando does, he kinda chats about things, doesn’t really tell you what he’s thinking, and then out of the blue he goes: ‘I wanna do it’. That is exactly what happened”.

The race partnered the old guard and the upcoming. Alonso shared his Ligier LMP2 with Lando Norris who, by this point, had established himself as McLaren’s ‘golden boy’ as the then 18-year-old had just been announced as McLaren’s reserve driver after claiming the Formula 3 European Championship crown in his maiden full-time season. 

“You can’t help seeing how Lando comes on,” said Brown. “He and Fernando get along really well so more than anything, it will be a great opportunity for them to bond and continue to build their relationship. 

“Lando is going to learn…