After being unable to capitalise on the opportunities at Singapore, Fernando Alonso says everyone at McLaren needs to improve - including himself.
By their own admission, last week's Singapore Grand Prix had been seen as the best chance McLaren had of a strong result this season, given the problems the team has experienced in the first year of their new partnership with Honda. Instead, it proved yet another disappointing weekend for all concerned.
"Singapore was probably the best [opportunity] of the remaining races so I don’t think we can see anything better than what we saw in Singapore," said Alonso, who was forced to retire from the race midway through.
"I guess we will be something in the middle," said Alonso when asked how he expected this weekend at Suzuka to go. "Not as bad as Monza and Belgium, not as good probably as Singapore.
"After Monaco and Hungary it will be the third best circuit for us, so in the remaining circuits it will be unlikely to see the performance we saw in Singapore from us but hopefully we will still have a chance to score points and be close to Q3."
However, the real lesson of Singapore was to underline just how much work the team still has ahead of it in order to restore its race fortunes.
"We cannot expect any miracles or any positions that will make everyone happy and show the direction for next year. We just have to concentrate on next year’s car and follow the programme.
"Everyone is doing what they can, everyone is working 24 hours a day to improve the situation in all areas because we need to improve the performance, the reliability, some of the procedures we do in the weekend, some free practice philosophies, the pit stops.
"We all need to improve – from the first mechanic to the drivers.
"We are in that part of the process and I will be happy at the end of the year if we keep growing that aspect here at trackside and if we keep making progress in the developing of next year’s power unit and chassis."
But Alonso stressed that he remained positive about the long term prospects for the team, especially because of the professionalism and worth ethic at McLaren.
"I learned that there are some projects and people that I am working with this year that are very, very clever – they are fantastic people.
"The whole team is committed to one thing and everyone is working in one direction so this is a fantastic feeling."
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