Webber: Alonso's sports car venture a 'distraction' from F1

Former Formula One and sports car driver Mark Webber has insisted that Fernando Alonso's venture into sports car racing will prove to be a 'distraction' from his F1 commitments following the Spaniard completing sports car testing at Daytona ahead of his competitive debut at the end of January.

Alonso has not won the driver's championship for over a decade and has recently spoken of a desire to go for motorsport's 'triple crown' which would include wins at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and Le Mans.

He intends to try and achieve this in addition to his F1 schedule and has been at Daytona this week testing out sports cars, but Webber believes it is a mistake to spread himself so thinly over the disciplines.

"No, it's a mistake," he told Automoto.

"They are two totally different things that both absorb a lot of mental energy. I think if you're doing F1 you can't afford distractions -- it (F1) is so specific that it doesn't allow room."

Nico Hulkenberg successfully won Le Mans whilst also competing in F1 a couple of years ago, but Webber thinks this was a different situation to Alonso as the latter will be under much more pressure with McLaren this season.

"That was with a second-rate team in F1. The pressures are different," Webber said of Hulkenberg winning Le Mans.

"He [Hulkenberg] was also with the top Le Mans team and that simplified things a lot."

Webber went on to praise Alonso as a driver, and even suggested he could win at Daytona at the end of the month.

"If he wins it would be amazing. He's a driver with talent unlike almost anyone else in the world. It would be fantastic, but it will not give him anything," he said.