Fernando Alonso doubts he would have been allowed to miss a Monaco Grand Prix to do the Indy 500 if Ron Dennis was still in charge of McLaren.
Alonso is missing the iconic Monte Carlo street race this year to make a one-off appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 28, something he is doing as part of a McLaren entry with Andretti Autosport and Honda. New McLaren CEO Zak Brown was the architect behind the decision, planting the idea in Alonso's head during the Australian Grand Prix weekend as he looked for someone to help him expand the iconic team's racing portfolio.
Brown replaced the enigmatic Dennis after he was ousted in November last year, ending an association with McLaren stretching back to 1980.
When asked if he believed Dennis would have let him compete at Indy 500, Alonso replied: "I guess not. I think Zak is a man that has a bigger vision than other team principals or bosses that I had.
"He sees motorsport differently, he sees McLaren bigger, not only concentrated in Formula One -- McLaren won Le Mans a couple of times, won the Indy 500 a couple of times as well, I think he's a true racer so it's great McLaren and Zak joined forces last year, that's a good thing."
Alonso went on to say the Indy 500 would not have even been a consideration if Honda's 2017 Formula One engine had lived up to expectations.
"If the car was competitive this year and we were 43 points together with the other two guys [Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton] you could not afford to lose 25 points possibility by missing one race. So probably it was different if we were competitive."