Alonso hopes McLaren’s "worst performance of the year" a one-off 

Fernando Alonso says McLaren needs to raise its game after enduring “by far the worst performance” of the 2018 Formula 1 season so far in the French Grand Prix. 

After Alonso and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne were out qualified by both Sauber drivers and faced early elimination in Q1, McLaren’s torrid weekend continued in the race as Alonso was classified 16th and last with Vandoorne only 12th. 

The Spaniard spun on the opening lap in a tangle with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, faced overheating brakes and ended the race with a suspension failure as he failed to score points for the third successive race. 

“It was all the race on the back foot, and from the start we had to avoid a lot of accidents in front of us,” Alonso explained. “We stay on the circuit and we came last just doing that. It was not our race. 

“We had a suspension problem at the end. We could not even see the checkered flag, so a not very competitive weekend for us. I think on the radio the team was definitely over excited. Telling me the gaps with the fifth guy, the sixth guy, and I was last after the Safety Car and I had a problem with the brakes overheating. 

“It was a defensive race and no frustration. But we know this weekend we have been quite uncompetitive from qualifying both cars out of Q1 and now both out of the points. We need to raise our level of Austria and Silverstone. We need to find solutions.”

When asked if he felt confident about a turnaround in performance at Austria, Alonso replied: “I am confident. This was by far the worst performance of the year. So, I really hope it is a one off and not the normality.

“In five days we have another opportunity to forget this, and I really hope that Austria and especially Silverstone will be better circuits for us.”