Fernando Alonso claims there is “optimism” at McLaren that their 2019 car will turnaround their poor results from this season.
The Woking-based squad began the year strongly with the Spaniard finishing fifth in Australia and would go on to score points in each of the first five races.
As the year has progressed, however, problems with the car aerodynamically have left the team trailing towards the back of the grid with only two top 10’s between Alonso and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne since the summer break.
“I think the car is definitely going to be more competitive next year,” was quoted by Crash.net on Thursday in Brazil.
“From July we’ve been testing experimental parts next year. I think there’s a lot of optimism in the team with the direction the car took in the last couple of months.
“We understood our problems. We know that last year the car was very competitive on the chassis side, we know that.
“We lost some of that competitiveness this year, we understood why. I think next year the team will be in a much better position and I’m happy for them.”
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Should McLaren make progress then Alonso won’t be there to enjoy it as he retires from Formula 1 after 17 years following the finale in Abu Dhabi.
And following two retirements and a combined five laps in Austin and Mexico, the 37-year-old’s aim at Interlagos is simple.
“It’s a track where many great races have taken place and it’s always a little bit unpredictable,” he said initially.
“I’m also looking forward to putting the last two race weekends behind me and focussing on extracting the performance we have been working hard to maximize in our car, but haven’t been able to show.
“I haven’t had the chance to fight for a couple of Grands Prix now, so I hope we can have a clean battle and show what’s possible.”