Fernando Alonso says he doesn’t expect much more performance from his McLaren F1 Team at this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, despite bringing yet more upgrades to the MCL33.
Alonso has scored points in all three races so far in 2018 but McLaren are still some way off the pace of the top three teams, including Renault powered counterpart Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
While Alonso doesn’t expect to be any closer to the front of the field in Azerbaijan he is looking to repeat his points scoring effort of last year.
“Last year’s race in Baku was certainly a memorable one for us,” says Alonso. “It was a crazy grand prix and we scored our first points of the season there, so we’ll naturally be looking to repeat that this weekend.
“Even though it’s only been on the calendar for a short time, this circuit is already known among the drivers as a great racer’s track. It’s the fastest street track of the year and also one of the longest, so it’s pretty tough on the car and the driver, but that’s definitely part of the appeal.”
McLaren have already announced considerable upgrades for the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix but Alonso says the team are continuing to learn their current package and will bring new parts to Baku.
“We know our limitations and where we need to improve our package, and, although we bring parts to test to every race weekend, we aren’t anticipating a radical change in our performance in Baku.
“However, we’re learning more and more about the behaviour of our car each time we step into the cockpit, and in Azerbaijan we’ll be maximising everything we have as usual to score as many points as possible.”
