Jenson Button doesn’t sound remotely tempted by the Indianapolis 500 these days — but he’s more than happy to push Fernando Alonso back towards it.
Writing in his regular column for Aston Martin’s official channels, Button has thrown his support behind Alonso taking another run at the one race still missing from his attempt to complete motorsport’s so-called Triple Crown. In Button’s view, the Spaniard remains the standout candidate to join Graham Hill as the only driver to have ticked off Monaco, Le Mans and Indy.
“The Monaco Grand Prix is part of the motorsport Triple Crown alongside the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indy 500,” Button wrote. “I’ve completed one leg but I don’t envisage getting all three… As for the Indy 500? I’ve got huge respect for those drivers but that’s not for me.
“Fernando probably has the best shot of anyone at completing the Triple Crown because he’s already won Monaco and Le Mans, and he’s come close at Indy, having led there. If he wants another go at it, he absolutely has a chance.”
It’s an interesting endorsement, not just because Button and Alonso’s careers have overlapped in some of the sport’s most chaotic eras, but because Button is careful to separate romance from reality. The Triple Crown is one of those labels that’s both a genuine historical measure and a convenient storytelling device — and Alonso, more than anyone of his generation, has treated it like a serious sporting objective rather than a marketing line.
His first attempt at the Indy 500 in 2017 looked, for a while, like it was going to be the one that made the whole thing feel inevitable. Alonso ran up front, led 27 laps, and showed an immediate feel for the place — no small feat for a driver arriving from F1 with the weight of expectation and a huge amount of curiosity attached. Then the engine issue hit, and with it went a chance that, even now, still feels like the best opening he’s had at the Brickyard.
The follow-ups were less cinematic. In 2019 he failed to qualify, a bruising reminder that Indy is perfectly capable of ignoring reputations. In 2020 he made the race and finished 21st. In between, he also took on the Dakar Rally and finished 13th — a detail that tells you plenty about the way Alonso’s “side projects” tend to be full-fat challenges rather than casual cameos.
Button’s argument is straightforward: Alonso has already banked Monaco and Le Mans, he’s shown he can run at the front at Indy, and — crucially — he still carries the competitive restlessness that makes an audacious return plausible. But the timing is everything, and that’s where the romantic angle meets the practical one.
Alonso, for his part, isn’t encouraging the speculation right now. Asked at the Canadian Grand Prix about the prospect of returning to Indianapolis in the future, he kept it short: “It is not a priority at the moment.”
That line matters because it speaks to where Aston Martin is in 2026. Alonso is still in the thick of a Formula 1 project that needs digging out after a difficult start to the season, and it’s hard to imagine him disappearing for the months of preparation an Indy programme demands — not if he believes there’s still meaningful work to do on the F1 side. For a driver who has always treated performance as a craft rather than a given, stepping away mid-problem would be an odd fit.
Button’s own comments underline the same reality from a different direction. He admits he’s had “a couple of attempts” at Le Mans without getting the win, and while he’d like to drive the Aston Martin Valkyrie there one day — “my chance to finally drive an Adrian Newey-designed car,” as he puts it — you don’t read his column and come away thinking he’s itching for a full-time cross-discipline campaign. He’s choosing the dream carefully, rather than chasing the entire set.
And perhaps that’s why his backing of Alonso lands: it doesn’t come off as hype. It reads more like a former world champion acknowledging that Alonso has built a rare sort of CV — not just in terms of trophies, but in terms of credibility across disciplines — and that Indy remains one of the few stages left where he can still write a genuinely new chapter.
That said, Indianapolis has a way of making even strong plans look fragile. This year’s race was a fresh reminder of just how violent the margins can be: Felix Rosenqvist took a dramatic victory, overhauling Marcus Armstrong and David Malukas on the final lap, with 0.023s at the line — the closest finish in the event’s history. If Alonso ever does go back, he won’t need anyone to tell him how thin the line is between “nearly” and “never again”.
For now, the message from the Alonso camp is clear enough: Aston Martin first. But Button’s point lingers in the background, because it’s difficult to look at Alonso’s career — its detours, its comebacks, its stubborn refusal to settle — and believe the Indy 500 story is finished simply because it’s inconvenient this year.
If the opportunity comes around when Aston Martin’s house is in better order, don’t be surprised if Alonso starts talking about “priorities” in a very different way.
