SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium: Fernando Alonso’s main focus for the Belgian Grand Prix weekend will be making sure he gets home in time to watch Spain play Argentina in the World Cup final on Sunday.
The Spanish driver’s Aston Martin team have been Formula One backmarkers this season, struggling to finish races and scoring just one point from nine rounds.
Belgium, the last race before Aston Martin introduce a major chassis upgrade with an improved engine still to come, could mark a low point before things start to improve.
In 2010, the last time a Formula One race coincided with soccer’s biggest match, Alonso was at Ferrari and fighting for wins.
Spain, now the European champions, won that World Cup in South Africa and are chasing their second crown against the holders.
“It will be different. As we don’t expect much this weekend,” two-time world champion Alonso told reporters at Spa-Francorchamps.
“The main focus on Sunday will be to get home and watch the match, to be honest.”
The final is scheduled for 9 p.m. European time (1900 GMT) with the Formula One race starting at 3 p.m. local time (1300 GMT).
“It’s going to be tricky because we are flying back home,” said Alonso.
“So maybe again on Sunday the second half will be probably the moment that I will watch the game. And the first half, just miss it.”
Argentine Franco Colapinto, who races for Renault-owned Alpine, and Spaniard Carlos Sainz at Williams will face similar problems.
“I’m definitely going to be much more nervous about the match than the race,” said Colapinto.
“Yesterday (the semi-final against England) we had a lot of fun, a lot of suffering. But if you don’t suffer a bit, you’re not Argentinian.
“It was one of those matches that, you are really nervous, but then you celebrate a lot. So it was a long night, but very fun.”
