Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso calls for 'double steps' from McLaren

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Fernando Alonso says McLaren needs to make "double steps" to become more competitive after a disappointing Spanish Grand Prix.

Having been running just outside the top ten, Alonso was hit by a brake issue which caused him to retire, dramatically overshooting his pit box as he brought the car back to the garage. With Jenson Button running comfortably off the pace and calling the car 'scary to drive', Alonso says McLaren needs to improve at a faster rate.

“Yeah I think it’s coming," Alonso said when asked about the team's progress. "Definitely we are a long way off, so we need to make double steps because everyone is improving as well this season so we need to make double steps," Alonso said. "This is a very challenging project but I’m so happy, I think we are recovering well and we need to keep up.”

However, Alonso concedes such issues are sometimes the result of making changes to parts of the car in search of more performance.

“I don’t think there was a problem for the team’s progress. The problem was in the power unit so this is a different problem from the brakes so obviously we need to investigate. Also Jenson had the problems [on Saturday] with the brakes so definitely there is an area to reinforce there.

"But you know, if you improve the power unit you put more push-power and then you break the engine so could cause a false start. But this is a different problem so I think more improvements will give us more performance for the next races. So I’m happy with that."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.