"Oh s---!"
That was Zak Brown's initial reaction when his star driver Fernando Alonso told him he wanted to race at the Indy 500 this year. Not in five years once he'd retired from Formula One, not next year to give Brown the required thinking time. This year.
The idea had first been floated as a joke between friends ahead of the start of the F1 season, but by the opening race in Australia Alonso was ready to make it a reality. With less than two months to go before the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500, he let Brown know he was serious and from that moment onward there was no backing down.