Alonso remains satisfied with McLaren progress

A lot of questions have been asked of Fernando Alonso, especially as Ferrari begin to challenge Mercedes following his departure.

Will Fernando Alonso’s career be remembered for numerous bad choices?

After the falling out between Alonso, then team-mate Lewis Hamilton and McLaren the Spaniard left McLaren after the 2007 season.

If he had stayed he would have had a few seasons of regular race victories and realistic title shots with McLaren.

But he joined Renault for two seasons before making the move to Ferrari. During these seven years Alonso won just 13 Grand Prix, a tally that simply is not enough for someone who many believe is the greatest driver of the current generation.

He watched on as Red Bull Racing and then Mercedes dominated, with Alonso in the wrong cars at the wrong time.

Without a win in 2014 Alonso made the decision to quit Ferrari and join the new project at McLaren alongside 2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button.

Between them they have won three Formula One World Championships and 47 Grand Prix and offers one of the most experienced partnerships on the grid and arguably the strongest pairing in Formula One.

Both have bought into the project at McLaren. After they dropped the dominant engine power of Mercedes and teamed back up with Honda.

McLaren Honda is a partnership engrained in the history of Formula One and together again McLaren hope that the longer term future will be stronger paired with the Japanese manufacturer rather than being a customer of Mercedes.

It’s a long term project, one that 33-year-old Fernando Alonso believed in enough to cancel his contract at Ferrari early to join.

But will it turn out to be the right decision?

Alonso’s replacement at Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel, has already won for his new team, whilst in China, Alonso was lapped by both Ferrari’s.

He may well claim that finishing the race was good progress and the bigger picture is for years to come, but he has to be wondering if he’s made another poor career choice.

‘The goal was to finish the race and we made it with both cars, so this is very useful information, For me, it was very important to finish the race. My longest run in the winter was 12 laps and then 22 in Malaysia, so I finished the race and it?s very good information to analyse now.

‘We keep learning, keep progressing and hopefully this is one of the last few races that we are lapped and at the back. Hopefully we start enjoying a little bit more.’ Alonso told Sky Sports.

‘The car is improving a lot every weekend: the power unit, aerodynamics, reliability. Everything is better and better. The starting point was too low, that?s the only thing,

‘These first couple of races are like this, a test for us, but we want to come back in a competitive basis very soon.’

The target for McLaren is the European rounds of the Formula One World Championship following Bahrain.

In Barcelona, McLaren are planning for a big upgrade which will continue to see McLaren Honda climb up the grid.

But will it be enough to satisfy Alonso?