The Spanish driver thinks 2016 will be completely different for McLaren.
The target is to reduce the two-second gap with the rest of the field. Staying optimistic, Fernando Alonso is certain “it will be relatively more than that” and that improvements will come from “everywhere” as certain parts of the car have not been optimized this year.
Alonso claims the team follows the good path and they know what to improve in the car to keep getting faster.
According to the Spanish driver, the main changes will be inside the car:
“We know the power unit has been our main limitation, so there are no radical changes for [2016] in terms of [car] design and philosophy. We know the deficit we have on the straights compared to other cars. So if we apply some of the solutions and everything is working as we expect, the laptime benefit will be very big.”
“We’re a bit clearer with what the strengths of the car are and we need to exploit a bit more in that direction. There are solutions in place which are logical and quite good and keep the motivation very high because I think [2016] will be a completely different picture. We have been through some difficult times, but I think we learned from it. We have kept united, working in harmony and that was the positive thing. The negative thing has been the results.”
But Alonso also insists on the fact it’s not the only thing to change this winter and they will have to work harder than the rest if they want to catch them up.
“Everyone will improve between half a second and one second,” he said. “With us being two seconds off the pace, we need to do more than half- or one second. The power unit will be the main thing to unlock this potential.”