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Can Fernando Alonso win Indy? Here's why and why maybe not

SPEEDWAY, IN – The month of May has been a joy ride for Fernando Alonso at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The two-time Formula 1 champion came to Indy having never turned left in a race car without also turning right. But he acquired such a feel for Indy's 2 1/2 -mile rectangle during a month of practice and qualifying that he's considered a strong contender to win the 101st Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, rookie or not. "You're not trying to bring somebody on who has very little experience driving very high-performance cars," said 2003 Indy 500 winner Gil deFerran, who this month has helped Alonso learn the nuances that make the speedway such a tough place to conquer. "I suppose it would be a little bit different if you were dealing with a younger, much less experienced person." Driving a McLaren Honda from the potent Andretti Autosport team, Alonso was consistently near the top of the speed charts in practice, he qualified fifth fastest at 231.300 mph, and he handled runs in heavy traffic like a driver who'd done it many times before. But those were the prelims. The race is another creature. "The car felt the best (it has) in the last two weeks. I was making some moves, taking some different lines. I am extremely happy." Other drivers say the speedway looks different on race day when the crowd, expected to top 300,000, fills the grandstands and makes an already narrow track seem even tighter. The three-wide rolling start is something Alonso has never experienced, and he will see the green flag from the middle of the second row between Takuma Sato and J.R. Hildebrand. And the space he'll be given by his competitors in the first 180 laps may disappear In the last 20 when it's every driver for themselves. Can a rookie like Alonso win this race? Absolutely, as Andretti driver Alexander Rossi showed last year when his team used a fuel-mileage strategy to win in his first taste of Indy. We're talking about Fernando Alonso here, who easily could show his rookie stripes to the rest of the field most of the day. His best lap in Friday's final practice, 226.608, was fifth fastest in the field and, more important, he said the car felt comfortable in heavy traffic. "The car felt the best (it has) in the last two weeks," Alonso said. "I was making some moves, taking some different lines.

McLaren will return to IndyCar racing full-time after 40 years

LONDON — McLaren will return to full-time IndyCar racing in 2020 in partnership with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Chevrolet, the British company announced on Friday. The move could give Spaniard Fernando Alonso, the double Formula One world champion who remains under contract to McLaren, another chance to win the Indianapolis 500 even if the Spaniard is not interested in a full season. The existing team will be renamed Arrow McLaren Racing SP, competing with two Chevrolet-powered cars and a possible third entry for Indianapolis. Former Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran, the sporting director of McLaren Racing, will lead a dedicated group independent of the Formula One team. McLaren last competed full-time in the IndyCar championship in 1979. "We come to IndyCar in full respect of the sport, our competitors, the fans and the task ahead," said McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. "It's definitely a very integrated partnership, technically, managerially and commercially," he told a conference call. He said McLaren, which faces a likely record 22 race season in Formula One in 2020 and are also contemplating a world endurance involvement from 2021 when the rules change to hypercars, were not biting off more than they could chew. McLaren has been mulling a full IndyCar campaign for some time, its decision influenced by failure to qualify Alonso for this year's Indianapolis 500 as a one-off entry. Brown said Alonso, who left Formula One at the end of last year, still wanted to win Indianapolis and McLaren wanted to do so with him. "He has not shown to date interest in competing in a full season," he added. "(For) Fernando, or someone else potentially, we would consider a third car entry at Indy only." Canadian James Hinchcliffe is committed through 2020 with Schmidt Peterson while Swedish former F1 driver Marcus Ericsson will be out of contract at the end of the year. Alonso wants to become only the second driver after the late Briton Graham Hill to win the "Triple Crown of Motorsport" and has already won the Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans 24 Hours. Indianapolis is the only remaining race to win. This year's Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud told Reuters last weekend that Alonso's best chances of success at The Brickyard would be either by doing a full season or racing with an experienced team.

New Tesla, McLaren, and Ferrari models added to Takata recall list

UPDATE: A McLaren spokesperson confirmed to Autoblog that "a number" of McLaren models in the US, Japan, and South Korea will be recalled to fix non-dessicated airbag inflators. However, the recall only affects passenger airbags, as all driver's-side inflators use a different technology and are not affected. The timeline is still being determined. It's been more than two and a half years since the Takata airbag recall first made waves. Despite knowing which airbags were at fault and the exact cause of the failure, manufacturers like Audi, Ferrari, McLaren, and Tesla have been building and selling cars with defective airbags. Although it takes several years for the airbag to degrade to the point of failure, all of these new cars will eventually have to be recalled for replacements. It appears that time has come, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has now issued a recall on some of these new models. Models from Tesla and McLaren have been added to NHTSA's recall list for the first time. Tesla is recalling every 2012 - 2016 Model S while McLaren is bringing back every model it's made since relaunching its road-car business in 2012. Not even the P1 is free from failure. Other automakers have expanded their affected-vehicle list. All of Ferrari's 2016 - 2017 lineup now falls under the recall and joins a number of previously recalled models, while Audi is recalling the 2017 R8. Since the recall started, dozens of automakers have recalled millions of affected cars to replace potentially fatal and highly flawed airbags that can deploy bits of metal at occupants. Eleven deaths in the United States are directly related to the faulty airbags. Before the recall, Takata held a sizable share of the airbag market. When the failures began to occur, some automakers were left with no alternative suppliers. As it takes a few years for the airbags to fail, automakers without other options faced a choice: they could either build cars that would be recalled in the future or stop building cars altogether until a secondary supplier could be found. These recalls seem to be happening so frequently that owners may not know what to do or where to check to see if their car is potentially affected. NHTSA is keeping a comprehensive list of all affected models. Their website can help owners determine if they have a potentially problematic airbag installed and the steps to take to replace it.