McLaren finished ninth in last season’s constructors’ standings, with Red Bull up in third, but the British team have switched to a Renault engine for 2018.
And Alonso - twice a world champion as a Renault driver - is optimistic for the year to come, having finished fifth at the Australian Grand Prix between Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
“It is the first race with this [McLaren-Renault] combination, so there is a lot more to come and hopefully, from Bahrain, we will see another step forward,” Alonso told Sky Sports.
“Red Bull will be the next target. There is a lot of potential in the car but it’s still to be unlocked.
“Right now, [Red Bull] are still clearly ahead of us and are in that exclusive group of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
“McLaren is willing to enter that group and I think in the coming races we will forget the middle group and we look forward to those privileged three top teams.”
0 votes
