Alonso: “We will do our best with what we have”

At the end of a winter of preparation largely disrupted by problems with the Honda Power Unit, McLaren will not show up next weekend in Melbourne, Australia, in a very favorable position.

Despite this observation, Fernando Alonso demonstrates, for the moment, intact motivation. The Spaniard admitted in 2016 that his future in the category would strongly depend on the pleasure gained from the coming season.

“We already know that sport is much more physical and cars are more difficult to drive, recalls the double world champion. From a driver's point of view, this is exactly what we were looking for in the new regulations, and I really hope it results in some good battles on the track. »

It now remains to be seen at what level the MCL32s will be located. For the old pilot Ferrari, performance will not be the priority for the Woking structure after the problems encountered during running in Barcelona.

“After two complicated weeks of testing, we are ready to face a difficult weekend in Melbourne, admits Alonso. We will do the best with what we have and there is a lot of work and collaboration within the team, but the lack of time before the first race means you have fewer options for big changes.

The first step will be to work on reliability before we can make any assumptions or predictions about performance, and we will try to enjoy the weekend as much as we can. »