Fernando Alonso reckons adapting from his McLaren Formula 1 car to Toyota’s World Endurance Championship challenger is harder than the other way around.
Alonso is contesting the 2018/19 WEC Super Season for Toyota alongside his role as a McLaren F1 driver.
The nature of the calendars means the Spaniard has to regularly switch between his McLaren MCL33 and Toyota TS050 HYBRID, and get accustomed to the various nuances of the respective cars and championships.
Alonso says that he can hit the ground running when returning to F1 from WEC – but that it takes a little more time to get used to the WEC, where he has less experience.
“I struggle a little bit more when I go from Formula 1 to the WEC car, just because the driving styles are so different,” he said.
“I think when I come back here [in F1] I don’t need any adaptation. I’m straight away comfortable with everything. It’s what I learned and my driving style developed for Formula 1 driving, so I expect no problem on the comeback.
“I think I am closer to the limit here in an F1 car. You need to maximise [everything], you need to make perfection every lap and repeat that perfection over and over the laps. That’s Formula 1’s style.
“In WEC, you have to be super-flexible, and super-open-minded on everything. You will not repeat the same lap in six hours.
“You will find traffic in different places, you will have different conditions, you will have different tyres age, you will have everything. So, that flexibility in terms of driving, I think it’s quite good for me.”
Alonso claimed victory on his WEC debut at Spa-Francorchamps before placing eighth at Formula 1's Spanish Grand Prix last weekend.
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