Fernando Alonso admits McLaren was “saved by the bell” following its double points finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix and insists the team has a lot of work to do to improve.
The Woking-based outfit was astounded by its poor performance in qualifying around the Sakhir circuit, with both drivers qualifying 13th and 14th respectively.
However, Alonso and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne battled through the field to bag points for the second successive race – a result that elevates McLaren into third position in the constructors’ championship.
Despite the result, the double world champion conceded McLaren must find a solution to improve the cars performance following a “difficult” weekend.
“We fixed it [qualifying] on the opening lap, didn’t we?” Alonso joked after the race.
“When I looked in the mirrors and I saw [Lewis] Hamilton behind I thought ‘I don’t know what position I’m in but it can’t be too bad if Hamilton is behind’.
“We were still lacking a bit of pace in the race to be with [Nico] Hulkenberg and to attack the Haas.
“A pretty difficult weekend saved by the bell at the last moment with two cars in the points and with good points for the team, but we know we have to improve because today was a bit of a coincidence.”
Nevertheless, Alonso was satisfied to leave Bahrain with a seventh-place finish to add to his top-five finish at the opening round in Melbourne.
“The race is not just about car performance,” he added. “It’s about saving fuel, the tyres, the start, the first corner, the first lap… there’s a lot more factors and we are usually better on Sundays than on Saturday.
“We know it’s been a particularly strange weekend for us. Very hard, too slow, especially in qualifying and we need to improve in the upcoming races because starting from so far back it’s complicated.
“But anyway, fifth in Australia, seventh here, 10 points there, six here. We would have taken 16 points before starting the championship in Barcelona, so I’m very happy about that.”
