Fernando Alonso says the aim for McLaren at this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix is to get both cars to the finish line for the first time in 2017.
The Woking-based outfit has suffered a difficult start to the 2017 Formula 1 season, due to a variety of reliability issues.
McLaren is one of just two teams yet to score a point in 2017, with Stoffel Vandoorne’s 13th place in Australia the best result so far.
Alonso retired from the first two races and was classified 14th in Bahrain, but failed to reach the chequered flag due to an engine issue.
He expects another tough weekend in Russia but hopes both cars reach the finish.
“Sochi Autodrom is an interesting circuit – a mixture of challenges, and ones which I think will be tackled quite differently this year with the new regulations for 2017,” he explained.
“There are two long, slightly-curved straights and high-speed corners, which means this circuit will be challenging for us with the package we have.
“But our car is also very well-balanced, so I hope we can get the most out of the many 90-degree corners that make this circuit so unique.
“A positive result for us in Sochi will be to finish the race with both cars, first of all, as we’ve suffered a few reliability issues over the past couple of weekends.
“I followed the test in Bahrain and I’m pleased that we were able to secure a lot of valuable data from both the car and the power unit.
“The season is long, but there isn’t much time between races for development, so the laps we managed on the final day of the test were a big positive for us and hopefully will be beneficial to us over the next few races.”
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