McLaren executive director Zak Brown believes Fernando Alonso will remain 'fresh and focused' despite his commitment to the Toyota LMP1 programme in 2018.
With the date for the 'Six Hours of Fuji' now moved a week earlier after a request from Toyota to allow the Spaniard to participate, Alonso is now set to undertake 26 race weekends of racing throughout 2018.
There have also been concerns as to whether 'burn out' could be an issue by the end of the season due to his hectic schedule but Brown doesn't believe that will be the case.
"I think what would he be doing those weekends otherwise?" Brown said.
"He wouldn’t be testing in a Formula 1 car, he wouldn’t be here on a simulator, there’s only so much he can do. We’ve got everything we need out of him on a Formula 1 front so these are weekends that he’d be in a go-kart or golfing or whatever he wants to do. So he’s just going to be in a Toyota WEC car.
"I’ve never seen anything like it. He races or drives every weekend, half the time under a different name when he’s karting. So he just wants to be in race cars.
"I think it keeps him fresh, it keeps him focused, it’s what he wants to do."
Brown was also questioned if there would be any commercial conflicts for Alonso in his duel campaigns for both McLaren and Toyota, however, the McLaren chief executive stated he ensured those commitments are being kept to an absolute minimum as part of the deal.
"Fernando’s effectively restricted to just driving the race car," he added. "As far as commercial appearances, sponsor commitments, things of that nature, that’s very minimised.
"He’s on loan from us, we came to an arrangement with Toyota to allow him to race the car but not travel the globe having commercial commitments.
"Toyota doesn’t have many sponsors on there so there aren’t any sitting there today that conflict with McLaren but if they do find any partner that’s conflicting with McLaren we couldn’t have Fernando walking around in competing sponsors attire and also he’s a McLaren driver first and foremost and a Formula 1 driver.
"That programme, while he’s going to go there and try and win the championship – because that’s what he does – when you think of Fernando you think of him as a McLaren Formula One driver first and foremost."
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