Fernando Alonso opens up on his situation at McLaren

After completing a frustrating Chinese Grand Prix, finishing 12th and fighting a vague battle with his team mate, Jenson Button, double world champion, Fernando Alonso said that it was ‘not the best feeling at all’ after he was lapped by both the Ferraris in China. It was his first finish of the season, but certainly not much memorable.

“Obviously, it’s not the best feeling, at all, but we know that it’s the way it is at the moment and we think that it’s not going to be for too long,” Alonso said. “It’s just for a few races now at the beginning.”

Fernando Alonso spent five frustrating years at Ferrari with no championships and finishing second three out of five times. He moved to McLaren this year  for a second stint with the team having first raced for them in 2007 for a single season. The Ferrari team were way off last year, their best position being second. This year, the team has made huge strides forward, managing to win a race already and threatening Mercedes’ rein. The two Ferraris lapped Alonso and Button during the closing stages. Kimi Raikkonen, running in fourth even shouted to his racing engineer to get that McLaren out of his way. And that McLaren was his former team mate Fernando Alonso’s car. Oh how quickly things change in Formula One!

The partnership of McLaren-Honda hasn’t been able to live upto its expectations up till now. The car lacks a lot of pace, and is still a way off from doing anything significant, like going into Q2 per say. Honda has turned its engine down at the opening races of 2015 to preserve the team’s engines and minimise the threat of penalties later in the season.

China was the first time both McLaren-Honda cars finished and Alonso was happy to look at the positives.

“I’m sure we learnt many things. We are still a little bit blind with the car; we still need to get a lot of information to extract from the package. Today, finishing both cars was a lot of useful information for us and trying to understand the car better. My longest run in winter testing was 12 laps, in Malaysia I did 22 laps, today I completed the race, so it was very useful for me as well. We had a small issue in the middle stint with the aerodynamics of the car, we have some extra oversteer we need to control. We are not so fast and also we have some problems and were even slower!”

Despite stuck behind,ahead of just the two Manors, Fernando Alonso is pretty positive on where things are headed to. China was the first time both McLaren-Honda cars finished and Alonso was happy to look at the positives.

“I’m sure we learnt many things. We are still a little bit blind with the car; we still need to get a lot of information to extract from the package. Today, finishing both cars was a lot of useful information for us and trying to understand the car better. My longest run in winter testing was 12 laps, in Malaysia I did 22 laps, today I completed the race, so it was very useful for me as well. We had a small issue in the middle stint with the aerodynamics of the car, we have some extra oversteer we need to control. We are not so fast and also we have some problems and were even slower!”

He further added, “I think we are all very satisfied, we are all very happy with progress in all areas. The car is improving a lot every weekend. Power unit, aerodynamic, reliability, everything is getting better and better. The starting point was too low, that’s the only thing, so the first couple of races are a test for us but we want to come back in a competitive basis very soon.”

He issued a ‘warning’, to the drivers, to enjoy his downfall, as much as they can, remaining upbeat that he’ll definitely strike back. :

“So it is time for many others to enjoy this moment. I don’t think they are fighting against me because some of the ones who are enjoying this, they are third – one second behind the leaders. They might well be beating me but they are not beating Mercedes and that, at the end of the day, is my goal. So this is the time for others to enjoy, soon it will be time for me.”