Why Alonso is modern IndyCar's Mansell moment

Fernando Alonso missing the Monaco Grand Prix to make his debut in the Indianapolis 500 is the biggest thing to happen to single-seater racing in America since Nigel Mansell switched to what was then called the CART Indycar World Series as the reigning Formula 1 world champion in 1993.

There are parts of the Alonso story that are even more remarkable than Mansell's - Mansell opted for the US as a way out of F1 when his relationship broke down with Williams, while Alonso is an active grand prix driver taking the staggering step of missing the season's most high-profile race for his first attempt at the jewel in the IndyCar crown.

Mansell's move to Newman/Haas catapulted an already-thriving CART series into the mainstream, but what can Alonso do for its equivalent more than two decades later?

This could be the moment IndyCar has been waiting for. Its international profile does not compare to the status it was enjoying before Mansell arrived on the scene, but the recovery mission since Champ Car and the Indy Racing League merged in 2008 has been building momentum.

Progress was slow in the early years of 'unification' as the severe damage caused by 'the split' in the mid-1990s took a long time to recover from. At times it looked beyond repair, but gradually IndyCar has turned a corner.

While series bosses make no secret of having international ambitions, the focus has correctly been on getting things back on track on home soil first. TV ratings have been on the rise in the US, after a long and painful decline, and through all the problems faced by North American single-seater racing, the Indy 500 has stayed strong. Last year the race sold out for the first time in more than two decades.

IndyCar is clearly warming up, but it still needs a spark to have a chance of catching fire again. Alonso presents the best chance in almost 25 years of that making that happen.

The comparisons with Mansell's arrival were put to IndyCar and Indianapolis chiefs Mark Miles and Doug Boles on Wednesday, and both acknowledged that Alonso has the potential to draw similar levels of worldwide interest to Mansell.

"Our view is there is a lot of parallels," said Miles. "This gives the rest of the world another reason to be focused on Indianapolis and IndyCar through all of May. We think it will make a difference for us, not just in terms of the 500 and IndyCar's global exposure, but I think over time we will see long-term benefits."

Boles added: "This is another good talking point. One of the great things about the Indianapolis 500 is the best drivers in the world compete here, and we say that every May. When you add Alonso to the field, it is pretty hard to argue against that statement. We are excited, and this is one more reason you don't want to miss the Indy 500."

When Mansell arrived for 1993 moves were already afoot that would lead to 'the split' for '96, and Tony George officially announced the formation of the Indy Racing League in '94. By then Mansell's love for Indycar was already on the wane during a difficult second campaign, and Bernie Ecclestone was pulling the strings to get him back to F1.

Among the reasons behind the creation of the IRL, beyond ugly politics behind the scenes that had plagued Indycar racing throughout its existence, was a concern that homegrown American drivers were missing out on opportunities.

The foreign invasion had already started before Mansell crossed the Atlantic Ocean, but it rocketed after his spell in America. His move transformed the landscape of Indycar racing, helping it become viewed as a credible career option away from F1 for aspiring drivers racing in Europe and South America.

In 1990, eight of the top 10 drivers in the standings were American, yet by the end of the decade that number was down to two, or four from North America if you include Canadians Paul Tracy and Greg Moore.

In some ways this proved the IRL's point - that the big-money, manufacturer-supported CART teams weren't out there to give local drivers a chance. But that was the nature of the growth of the series, which was becoming a legitimate alternative, or even rival, to F1 before George's moves took American open-wheel racing down from the inside.

The continued success of CART through the rest of the 1990s showed that the split, and the resulting loss of the Indy 500 from the schedule, took a long time to have a truly damaging effect. The series initially flourished, with Honda, Mercedes, Ford and Toyota doing battle in the engine stakes, while teams held onto the major sponsorship dollars that had started to arrive during the 1980s.

In the grand scheme of things, Mansell's two-year stint was short, and by the time he departed for an ultimately futile return to F1 with McLaren for 1995 he left behind a championship strong enough to continue to boom without him, with the threat of the IRL looming on the horizon.

Indycar's credibility continued to grow when 1995 champion and Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve made the switch in the opposite direction to Mansell, joining the dominant Williams F1 team and winning races in his rookie year before defeating Michael Schumacher for the championship the following season. It seemed a far cry from Michael Andretti's disastrous attempt to make the same move with McLaren in 1993.

Alex Zanardi earned cult-hero status during his initial three-year stint in CART, bagging two championships before following in Villeneuve's footsteps by joining Williams. Unfortunately his 1999 season had more in common with Andretti's fortunes than Villeneuve's, while Juan Pablo Montoya would help repair some of the perception after returning from a fruitful spell in America to become a frontrunner in F1 - again with Williams.

Since then, the only crossover has come in the form of drivers seeking salvation after their F1 options have dried up - firstly veteran Rubens Barrichello, and more recently Max Chilton and Alexander Rossi. While Rossi remarkably won the Indy 500 as a rookie last year, it owed a lot to a fuel-mileage run in the final stint, and for the most part the fortunes of the recent ex-F1 brigade suggest that Alonso will have his work cut out given his lack of specialist experience.

As for other Indy cameo appearances, Andretti ran NASCAR star Kurt Busch to sixth place in 2014, although compared to Alonso he had the advantage of a deep understanding of oval racing. Villeneuve also made a one-off return in that race, staying on the lead lap to come home 14th - a result that would surely be considered respectable for Alonso at the first attempt.

On the other side of that coin, ex-F1 racer Jean Alesi's attempt at the race in 2012 was a disaster, but that was as much down to the forgettable Lotus engine project as anything else, with the French-Sicilian not really having a hope from the off due to the equipment at his disposal. At least in Andretti, Alonso knows that side of things is taken care of.

Those visits were before the rules were opened up to allow manufacturers to develop their aerodynamics, and the move away from the 'spec' version of the Dallara DW12 has led to cars with more power that are trickier to handle, particularly around the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It has taken IndyCar a long time to get over its darkest days, and Miles, who has overseen the series' turnaround in fortunes since taking over as CEO of parent company Hulman & Co. at the end of 2012, must have been wondering what he could do next to continue the revival. A phone call from McLaren executive director Zak Brown asking if he could find a car for a two-time F1 world champion to join this year's Indy 500 grid would not have been on his list of likely options.

But if further proof was needed of how seriously IndyCar is taking the opportunity to have Alonso join the field for this year's 500, look no further than the fact Miles took the very bold step of asking Stefan Wilson to give up his planned entry to free up a Honda-powered car as there was no machinery available at short notice.

Miles has promised Wilson and his sponsors that it will be made worth their while for 2018, so sacrifices are being made across the board to make sure this incredible story reaches reality. IndyCar knows just how big this is.

Alonso is not going to have exactly the same effect Mansell did. Modern IndyCar is not at the level of the series Mansell joined in 1993, and while Alonso is still an active F1 driver, he's only doing one race. And the 500 is the event that needs the least help on the IndyCar schedule. But these things are all relative: IndyCar's stock is lower now, so even a smaller impact can be significant.

Alonso's presence can still tip the scales for the showpiece event, particularly outside of America. Montoya hasn't raced in F1 for over a decade, yet his 2015 victory at Indy caused a noticeable spike in Autosport.com's IndyCar traffic figures compared to recent years.

We're not suggesting that it's time to talk about what an Alonso win would do - although his Andretti Autosport team has a great record in the race and did manage to win it with a rookie last year in the form of Rossi - but if Montoya can still be a draw for what could be considered a 'non-IndyCar' audience 10 years on from his F1 career, the effect of Alonso entering the race has massive potential.

And who knows what else it might lead to. The hint from McLaren shareholder Mansour Ojjeh that the team could return to the 500 in the future, or even become a full-time entrant in the championship, did not appear by accident in the official press material covering the Alonso announcement.

It could be in there as a buttering-up to the IndyCar chiefs that have helped put this deal together, but tellingly of the follow-up stories to run on our site on the day of the announcement, that was the one that attracted the most interest.

Of all the potential beneficiaries from McLaren-Honda's disastrous circumstances in F1 at the moment, which have surely played a part in Alonso's decision, the IndyCar Series has got to be one of the most unexpected.