McLaren more competitive than expected

SI Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were unable to advance to the third part of the qualifying session, failing in 12th and 13th positions on the starting grid for the Australian Grand Prix tomorrow morning (from 6 a.m. French time), the performances displayed by the McLaren MP4-31, powered by the Honda V6 turbo/hybrid Power Unit, satisfied the Woking clan.

“The car was fantastic today, explains the double Spanish world champion. I felt very comfortable and very happy with the performance of the car all weekend. We didn't expect to be very fast here because our car is still limited in terms of performance in certain areas. But we were more competitive than we expected, and we have some new things coming for the next races, and we hope to be stronger in the next events. »

The old pilot Ferrari also returned to the new qualifications system, which is far from unanimous in the paddock, with the last three minutes of Q3, contested without any car on track, after successful attempts to Lewis Hamilton to secure his 50th pole position.

“Maybe we need to give the new system a little more time. However, I believe it favors stronger teams and is a bit unfair to less competitive teams. Of course, the top teams don't need to use two sets of Supersoft tires in Q1, so the onus is on us to become a competitive team again.

But maybe we should do what the Moto GP implemented in qualifying last year – where less competitive teams can use softer tires in qualifying. In Formula 1, we chose to do the opposite. »

The Australian Grand Prix will start tomorrow, 6 a.m. French time.