Alonso: “We are among the best teams”
Satisfied after his qualifying session, Fernando Alonso could not help but touch on the news about his McLaren team to extend his ambitions for the weekend in Singapore.
The McLaren drivers made a good impression on this Saturday. Already very aggressive during the last free practice session, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne continued their momentum in qualifying, making their way into Q3 and clocking the 8th and 9th fastest laps, respectively.
The Marina Bay street circuit in Singapore was indeed a key date for McLaren-Honda due to the less significant demand on the power unit compared to other tracks like Monza two weeks ago. However, it is now widely known that the Honda power unit suffers from a significant efficiency deficit, which has led the British team to call on engine supplier Renault starting from the 2018 season.
Interviewed about the team’s good weekend, the winner of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix does not hide his satisfaction and ambitions for the race: “This circuit suits us much better, while the first objective we set for ourselves was to place both cars in Q3, and that was a success. Let’s now see what we are able to do tomorrow for the race. Considering where we qualified, it should be possible to have both cars in the points!”
Nevertheless, the double world champion acknowledges a lack of track time from his team on Friday, a crucial day for preparing race settings: « Our long runs yesterday were unfortunately not long enough. We will focus on a good start and a good first corner and then see if we can maintain our positions. »
The former Renault driver seems to somewhat regain a smile when the McLaren chassis can deliver its full potential, and thus appears praiseworthy: « On this kind of tracks, we feel like we are among the best teams with such a chassis ». And he goes on to talk about the 2018 season, a pivotal year for his potential collaboration with the new McLaren-Renault entity: « Next year will be a good test. Having the same engine as Red Bull will be a good test to determine if the chassis is really good or not ».
Let us specify that even if the end of the McLaren-Honda partnership seemed to be a sine qua non condition for Alonso’s F1 career continuation with McLaren, no contract extension has yet been announced by the British manufacturer.
“The first part of the job is done” – @alo_oficial#SingaporeGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/WxyI426W4A
— Formula 1 (@F1) 16 septembre 2017
