Fernando Alonso has never been precious about Formula 1’s place in the motorsport ecosystem. Yes, he’ll tell you it’s the pinnacle — and he should know — but he’s also been around long enough to recognise how narrow an F1-only diet can be for fans, and how healthy it is when the biggest names occasionally look over the fence.
So when Max Verstappen popped up at the Nürburgring 24 Hours earlier this month and came away talking about how it “reminds me how pure motorsport can be”, Alonso wasn’t about to clutch at pearls on F1’s behalf. If anything, he’s all for it.
“I don’t think that they can call that ‘pure racing’, it’s just a different series,” Alonso said, pushing back slightly on the loaded phrasing while still endorsing the wider point. “But it’s good that they discover different sports and different categories, different ways of enjoying motorsport.”
It’s a very Alonso way of framing it: deflate the slogan, keep the sentiment. And it lands because he’s lived the argument rather than merely theorising it.
When Alonso went to Indianapolis in 2017, he didn’t arrive as a novelty act. He was quick, he led the Indy 500 on debut, and for a moment it looked like he might just do the ridiculous thing and win straight away. A mid-race issue ended that dream and left him classified down in 24th, but the shockwave of interest was unmistakable. Alonso remembers a first test that pulled “like two million” viewers on YouTube, simply to watch him circulate the oval alone.
The subtext is obvious: the sport expands when its stars move. Fans follow people, not just series. And when those people are already fully formed icons — Verstappen being the most obvious example in this era — the gravitational pull is huge.
Alonso also knows that stepping outside F1 doesn’t diminish it. His own sabbatical ended up strengthening his legend: two overall Le Mans wins with Toyota, then a return to grand prix racing with Alpine in 2021 and later Aston Martin. The idea that a driver is “betraying” F1 by racing elsewhere has always been a little insecure, and Alonso spoke like someone who’s never felt the need to defend the category’s status.
“Formula 1 is just one per cent of the whole motorsport environment,” he said. “And I think people enjoy [other series].”
That matters in 2026, because Verstappen’s Nürburgring cameo didn’t happen in a vacuum. He’s been openly critical of the current regulatory direction in F1, particularly the way battery management has come to dominate the driving experience. He’s also made it clear he sees the proposed tweaks to the power units in 2027 as the minimum required to improve what the driver feels behind the wheel.
Whether you agree with Verstappen’s diagnosis or not, the broader dynamic is easy to read: when the most complete racer of his generation starts pointing at other disciplines and talking wistfully about “pure” sensations, some fans will take the hint — especially those already tired of hearing drivers talk about management more than momentum.
Alonso’s take is essentially: good. Let them go and watch other things. Not because F1 needs to be “punished”, but because motorsport as a whole is richer than the grand prix bubble sometimes pretends.
He even reached for an IndyCar example that will make some in Europe smile. “There were like two Europeans driving in IndyCar,” Alonso said, “now they are 80 per cent Europeans… so hopefully more people will go to the Nürburgring or to Le Mans in the future or whatever.”
The exact percentage matters less than the point: cross-pollination works. A star changes the audience mix. A new audience brings new narratives, new heroes, and — crucially — a different kind of appreciation for what racing can look like when it isn’t filtered through the same aerodynamic philosophies and power unit talking points.
And Alonso wasn’t shy about why Verstappen doing these events matters more than, say, a well-marketed promotional appearance. “If top drivers in Formula 1 [take part], they are just opening the eyes for fans into a new series,” he said.
That’s the cleanest defence of Verstappen’s curiosity you’ll hear. It’s not an indictment of F1; it’s a reminder that the sport’s best talents don’t stop being racers just because the calendar says so. Sometimes they want to wrestle something different, in a different environment, with different risks and different rewards — and if that nudges F1 audiences into discovering the Nürburgring or Le Mans, everyone wins.
“Formula 1 is the pinnacle and lovely,” Alonso concluded, “but also the other series are just as magic as Formula 1 in a sense.”
Coming from a two-time world champion who’s chased the Indy 500, conquered Le Mans, and still turns up for grand prix weekends with his edge intact, it doesn’t sound like diplomacy. It sounds like a racer telling the truth.
