"We're all growing up together" says buoyant Alonso

In spite of another lacklustre showing by McLaren Honda in qualifying today, Fernando Alonso's motivation remains firmly on track as the Spaniard considers huge progress is definitely being made on both the performance and reliability fronts.

"We're making some big progress," Alonso said, jokingly adding: "If we can improve by 1.5 seconds every two weeks we should be on pole in three or four races!"

Asked how soon the team may be in a position to be competitive, Alonso remained elusive but upbeat insisting it was all a work in progress.

"It's obviously a very challenging period for us at the moment, with a steep development rate because we are far behind. But every race we will learn and improve."

Absent in Australia, Alonso faces his first full scale race test tomorrow, but it's all part of a process which hasn't done anything to hinder his motivation or regret his career choice.

"When I saw the Mercedes half a minute in front of everybody it was clear it was a good decision to join McLaren-Honda. If you want to beat them, you have to do something different and somehow take on some risk, because if you copy you'll always just be behind."

Fernando Alonso also praised McLaren for its efforts and the level of expertise it incorporates.

"The team is so talented with a lot of young people, a lot of Japanese people which are new to F1. It's an exciting challenge as we all grow up together, from the bottom. And when we arrive at a point when we're on the podium, we'll look at each other and say it's been a very exciting trip."

Click here for three reasons why Honda is struggling at the start of 2015