Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso seeks to regain motivation in 2016

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Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso admitted that he'd under-performed in 2015 but insisted that he was ready and willing to do everything necessary to get back to the top again this season.

"Mentally you need to be ready and motivated," said Alonso. "Last year it was not the case because I did not perform at my level in probably any race.

"I hope this year will be better, I have been preparing myself as well as ever all winter. I did a lot of physical preparation, a lot of work with the team.

"I am very very motivated. Probably I will not fight for the championship, but I will do my best season whatever the position I am fighting for."

Alonso's miserable 2015 season at McLaren saw him finish in the points only twice, at Silverstone and the Hungaroring. He retired from seven of the remaining 16 races in which he competed, and wasn't even on the grid in Melbourne because of a heavy accident in pre-season testing.

"We had so many reliability problems," sighed Alonso looking back over the last 12 months. "In some races, we started and knew the ERS would fail on Lap 7 so you would ran with no battery for a couple of laps because temperatures or this or that."

"Two or three races I was okay but the others I was not happy with myself," he conceded. "It was very difficult to keep performing well when you are not able to express yourself in the car.

Knowing that last year's McLaren MP4-30 simply wasn't able to match its rivals on the track had a demotivating effect on Alonso, as the 34-year-old readily admits.

"When you are a sportsman and you can not do your job, there is a tendency to wait for the next opportunity and to wait for a unique race.

"My focus and my concentration was in Monaco, Singapore, Austin. three or four races where it was like a grand finale for us. This was not good."

There had been hopes and rumours that McLaren's power unit provider Honda had made a significant breakthrough in terms of engine power and reliability, but pre-season testing didn't appear to show any major advances for the team.

"The engine feels better than last year," Alonso insisted. "I am happy with the step that we did over the winter."

FULL REPORT: Vettel ensures Ferrari ends testing on top

GALLERY: Pre-season testing

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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.