While McLaren has struggled since returning to Honda power in the 2015 F1 season, Fernando Alonso says the team is the best he’s ever worked with.
The two-time world drivers champion has raced for Minardi, Renault and Ferrari in the past but recently told Motorsport that the team’s structure stands out from the others.
“It’s probably the best team I’ve been with in my career,” he said. “We are not competitive because we have a lot of problems to solve from last year, we weren’t ready to compete at this level. We had to make sure the reliability was in place, power, driveability, aerodynamics. Everything had to change a lot and we had find a direction.
“In terms of the team, the structure, the organisation, this is the best group that I’ve been working with,” Alonso said.
The McLaren team is still short on pace to rival the likes of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari but has improved in 2016 and currently sits seventh in the constructors championship.
For 2017, the sport will adopt a host of changes aimed at making the cars 4 seconds a lap quicker and Alonso thinks the new aero and wider tires will help the British squad.
“The change opens a hope for all of us, not only at McLaren, everything is new for everyone. Let’s go step by step and hope that we have a competitive engine, and the new rules make us more competitive on the chassis side, allow us to use new ideas and philosophies,” he said.
PHOTO GALLERY
