Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

'Every race is a test' for McLaren - Alonso

Fernando Alonso says "every race is a test" for McLaren as it looks to move up the grid in the second half of the season.

The McLaren-Honda partnership has a been a troublesome one so far this season, with a number of reliability issues limiting the performance available from the power unit. Steady progress has seen Alonso score points in back-to-back races, following tenth place at Silverstone with a surprise fifth at the Hungaroring.

While acknowledging McLaren cannot be satisfied until it is fighting for victories, Alonso says the team has to take a different view of success during a race weekend at this stage of its development.

"We are here to compete, to win one day, but we are not in that position right now," Alonso said. "Every race is a test for us. We need to keep improving and we need to keep growing.

"I think we know that we are going in the right direction, but it’s always better if you score points, that you can touch with your hands some points and results finally. A little bit lucky [in Hungary] with some of the things that have happened. Some of the races we have been unlucky so we need take every opportunity.”

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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.