Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Encouraged Alonso expects Monaco to suit McLaren

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Fernando Alonso says Monaco should suit McLaren but is not overly concerned when the team scores its first points of 2015.

Buoyed by Honda updates and both cars making it through to Q2, Alonso was confident McLaren would score its first points in the Spanish Grand Prix but was forced to retire with a brake issue. Having seen the progress from the team, Alonso is now less eager to finish in the top ten as long as he is happy the team is moving forward.

Asked if Q3 will be possible for McLaren in Monaco, Alonso replied: "We’ll see, I think that’s the question I will have to answer for the remaining Thursdays in the year.

"We will see, our target is not to get one point, it’s to win the world championship, so if I get eighth position here or eleventh or fifth, I don’t care too much.

"It’s a question of time when we will get the first points, but in Barcelona we were very close and maybe without the problem I was ninth or tenth and here maybe it is the same scenario. We could be competitive just to get some points, but maybe not. Some circuits where we have high expectations maybe it is a tough weekend and others where we are pessimistic we get the best results of the year.

"As far as we are concerned it is a circuit that could suit our car because the power effect is quite low, so we will try to get a good weekend, deliver a good result and that will be enough to get in the points – who knows? I think yes, but if not it’s not a problem."

Click here for a look at the technical updates brought by all the teams at the start of the European season

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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.