Fernando Alonso says he has reason to be optimistic about the season ahead, despite McLaren’s troubles during pre-season testing.
Although racing director Eric Boullier admitted the team are 50 per cent behind where they should be according to their test plan, Alonso reckons they’ve made a lot of progress this week.
“Today finally showed to all of us that we are going in the right direction,” he said after completing his 59th lap of the day – the most McLaren has achieved in a single day with the MP4-30.
“We could test some of the potential of the car, check many systems we could not do before [in Jerez]. Every lap we learn and discover new things.”
A smoky start for Alonso on Friday
The Spaniard came within 1.3 seconds of Daniel Ricciardo’s best laptime of the day, despite running without ERS and reduced engine power.
“Obviously we are running with some limitations still, on the engine and full power etc, but definitely the car felt better than Jerez.
“The potential of the car is there, with limitations or no limitations the car feels quick, so slowly we will put in order some of the issues we have.”
With just 20 days until the opening race, Alonso doesn’t know whether the team will be fully up to speed, but is confident they’ll do the best job possible.
“We will arrive to Australia hoping Australia was in June or July, but it’s in March and I don’t know if we will arrive completely ready,” he added.
“But what I’m sure is we’ll arrive in the best conditions we can. I’m happy with the progress we have made.”
Discussion about this post