"It may sound strange being where we are, but the goal is that," says Spaniard; Alonso wants change in F1 or he will seek alternative
Monday 25 July 2016 12:00, UK
Fernando Alonso has made the bold claim that McLaren want to win the world championship next year, despite their current struggles.
McLaren have yet to even secure a podium finish since renewing their Honda partnership at the beginning of last season, with Alonso and Jenson Button frequently venting their frustrations with the lack of power and reliability through the campaign.
Improvements have been slow and steady and McLaren are now fighting a midfield battle, a great distance away from Mercedes, but Alonso insists the Woking team are aiming to put an end to what will be a 19-year wait for a constructors' title in 2017.
"Of course, you want to change," the Spaniard, whose two fifth-place finishes are McLaren's best in the past two years, told AS. "Every day you work imagining that victory will come in the future.
"Next year we want to win the world championship - it may sound strange being where we are, but the goal is that. I take it as a process of maturation waiting for better times.
"Last year was very hard, it was painful, because we had problems at circuits that probably could have been solved in the test. This year we can see that things have improved. We may be the team that has improved the most over the last 12 months.
"The problem is that the other engines have been working for 36 months and is not easy to regain the lead in half the time. We achieved reliability, we still lack performance. That will come next year. But I'm sure the time will come when we will be the best of all."
Two-time world champion Alonso is contracted to McLaren until the end of 2017 but admits he has been falling out of love with the sport in recent years, with tyre and engine management now more crucial in the modern era.
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A complete overhaul of the technical regulations is forthcoming in a bid to increase mechanical grip and overtaking, but the 34-year-old says if he doesn't see a drastic change he will seek pastures new.
"If I see that Formula 1 continues in a different direction to which I knew and loved in the past, then I will have to consider an alternative," he added. "Because to be competitive, you have to have fun to drive.
"We can never go to the limit of the car, we can never attack when we want, because the tyres do not allow it. If you push too much, you overheat and lose grip. If you use too much of the engine, you go out of the parameters of consumption.
"To be fast in today's Formula 1 you should not attack, this is the secret. The next year changes many things, we hope that the pilot can again be an important factor "
