Fernando Alonso says McLaren cannot hide behind any excuses in this year’s Formula 1 development battle, now that it shares an engine partner with two rival teams.
McLaren’s prospects between 2015 and 2017 were thwarted by the problems encountered by power unit partner Honda, prompting the parties to split, and McLaren to link with Renault.
McLaren has had a mixed start to the 2018 campaign, only making Q2 once – at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix – but has scored points at each race to hold fourth in the Constructors’ scrap.
Alonso says that having a common engine partner with Red Bull and Renault provides it with a better opportunity to identify where the team needs to improve.
“I think it will depend on us,” Alonso said in the wake of McLaren introducing its revised MCL33, with its striking front-end changes.
“It’s not like in the past that we needed to mix a lot of things to get it right. We were missing reliability, we were missing race pace, and sometimes deployment, sometimes aero, sometimes mechanical grip. There were many things to fix.
“Now we know that on the power unit side we have the same engines as Red Bull, so it’s all on us, the chassis development, to close that gap. We are motivated to do that.
“We are in the right direction. I think the new package is delivering what we expect from it. That’s always a good boost in confidence for everyone in the factory, for all the plans they have for the next races.
“We know we are in the right direction. Let’s see what we can do during the season. We need to score points every Sunday.”
Alonso added that he was encouraged by the improvement McLaren was able to display across one-lap, having ended a string of Q2 exits with an eighth-place result.
“It definitely felt better, quicker,” he said. “I think the average position was P12 or P13 for us this year, so P8 is definitely a step forward.
“Everyone brought updates here, so it seems relative to them we made a step forward.
“We did a 1:17.7 over the winter with the Hypersofts, and we did a 17.7 with the Softs, so it’s a huge step forward.
“Now we need to keep bringing as many new parts as possible in the next grand prix because the midfield is quite tight, and two or three-tenths can mean five or six positions.”
