Fernando Alonso never wavered in his pursuit of an Indianapolis 500 victory, even as he failed to earn a spot in last year's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I was 100 percent sure that I would come back,” the two-time Formula One World Champion said Wednesday.

Alonso made that official on Tuesday when it was announced he would be reunited with McLaren on the Arrow McLaren SP INDYCAR team for the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. On Wednesday, Alonso spoke of his decision and his desire to return to racing’s biggest event.

“It’s one of those days that you announce the participation in one of these iconic races, which is always very special,” he said. “Even if it's the third attempt. It feels like the first one. I feel that the month of May is going to be an important one once more for my career and for my emotions because it's quite an emotional race and all the things that are happening around that event are quite special.

“I'm really looking forward. Definitely last year we did not have the experience that we wanted.”

Alonso had a highly successful debut in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 with McLaren Honda Andretti. He qualified fifth on the grid, led 27 laps in the race and was in contention for the victory before engine failure put him out of the race 21 laps from the finish.

Alonso returned with a full McLaren effort in 2019. It struggled to get up to speed and Alonso was the last driver bumped out of the field by Juncos Racing's Kyle Kaiser.

The driver from Spain admitted on Wednesday that he focused on two teams for this year's race. He negotiated with both Andretti Autosport and Arrow McLaren SP.

“The final decision was not easy between Andretti and McLaren,” he said. “Maybe people think that Andretti can be more competitive, maybe other people will think that it could be McLaren, and that's something that is difficult to know the advantage before the race happens.

“I trust this project a little bit more, and I have this sense of loyalty as well to McLaren and to our fans. Last year they had high hopes, as we have, and didn't show up on the race on the big weekend.

“It’s not an obligation, but I have this kind of feeling that we need to give something back, and this year we will go for it.”

Alonso said his only focus is to win the Indianapolis 500. He believes Arrow McLaren SP can give him that advantage on a three-car team. He admitted that being the sixth car at Andretti Autosport would be too difficult to contain information for his car.

“I think the three cars in the team, that will help to share information,” Alonso said. “Maybe if you have a bad day or someone on the team has a bad day, there is not the cost that there was last year.

“But it would be strange for me to race there (with Andretti) and to have McLaren in the garage alongside and knowing that they have more potential than they had last year. I think we've been together through good things, bad things, and we need to discover this new opportunity together. That's what I felt was the right thing to do.”

Fans at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May could get a double dose of Alonso. He is open to competing in the GMR INDYCAR Grand Prix on the road course as long as it doesn’t take away from his 500 effort.

“I think more tests, more simulator, more races, whatever I do before the Indy 500, it can be only beneficial to my preparation because I would like to be a little bit more active from now to the Indy 500,” Alonso said. “But there are other things that may compromise the Indy 500 car or the setup or the building of everything, so I don't want to make any problem to that preparation.

“We will figure out what is the best preparation, and as I said before, I'm open to do more things than in the past.”

The 17-race NTT INDYCAR SERIES season begins March 13-15 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the city streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.