Fernando Alonso has urged McLaren to raise its game and asserted that the team “cannot underperform again” after a low-key showing at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Alonso placed fifth at the season-opening race in Australia, accepting that his result was slightly fortuitous, but challenged McLaren to close on Formula 1’s top three teams.
However, Alonso was knocked out in Q2 – having only just scraped through Q1 – in Bahrain, and went on to take seventh place, the bulk of his gains coming courtesy of a strong opening lap.
Successive points finishes has left Alonso fourth in the Drivers’ Championship – with McLaren third – but the Spaniard is aware that the team must improve on its Bahrain display.
“Looking at the overall picture of the weekend, we struggled in every session and had quite a poor qualifying,” said Alonso, who described his race recovery as “positive.”
“Having 16 points after two races is promising, but at the same time we know that this weekend was not good enough in terms of performance, so we need to raise our game.
“We just cannot underperform again. We know that we have the potential, and that the car has some good things and bad things which we need to make sure we improve as soon as possible.”
Stoffel Vandoorne, meanwhile, cut an upbeat figure, having bounced back from a disastrous getaway to collect eighth place.
“I had a terrible start, a lot of wheel-spin off the line and found myself sitting there in absolute last after Turn 1,” he said.
“From there we made a great recovery, and to finish eighth and have both cars in the points again is very pleasing.
“We always knew our race pace was going to be better than our qualifying pace and we proved that again.
“We overtook a lot of cars on track and made some very bold overtaking moves into Turn 1.
“For me it was an amazing race and I enjoyed some great fighting, so I’m pretty happy.”
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