Fernando Alonso believes Red Bull's recent victory in Malaysia, which was won on superior pace, has put pressure on McLaren to deliver victories in 2018 when it switches to the same power unit as the Red Bull team.
McLaren team bosses have often been quoted as saying their chassis is amongst the best on the grid, but with an underpowered Honda engine, they've been unable to prove that and will therefore switch to Renault next season in a bid move back to the front.
Alonso says the pressure is now even greater now that Red Bull have proven that the Renault engine is capable of delivering wins.
"We saw in Monza a very good performance from Red Bull, which is a power circuit," said Alonso.
"Malaysia was another step forward, they beat the Mercedes without rain, without any different strategy, without anything. So that was good.
"But that at the same point put some [extra] pressure on McLaren. We need to make sure that we do our job on the chassis side, because the engine can deliver wins, as Red Bull proves."
When asked if challenging Red Bull was a realistic target for McLaren next year, Alonso replied: "Yeah, I think so.
"I think that the challenge is, how can McLaren be in front? But McLaren should never be afraid of matching any other team, because McLaren should beat any other team."
Discussion about this post