Alonso: McLaren car is 'surprisingly good'

Fernando Alonso has admitted that he is pleasantly surprised by how the new 2019 McLaren car performed at testing in Barcelona over the past couple of weeks, but did warn that there were a couple of areas that required improvement before the start of the season.

The Spaniard has retired from F1 action for the moment, but was present at the Circuit de Catalunya in his role as an ambassador and potential test driver for McLaren.

After witnessing the MCL34 in action, and receiving some positive reports from the team's engineers, he remains optimistic about McLaren's chances this year.

"I think we are learning a lot," Alonso told Autosport.

"I was in contact with the team and I was aware of the debriefs and all the small problems and issues we were finding, and I think last week we confirmed the picture of the car."

The two-time world champion did concede that there were some issues needing solved, however.

"So I think there are a couple of areas that need to be revised and they need to keep developing to improve the performance. Some others are surprisingly good, so I'm happy with the results and generally I think it has been a very positive two weeks.

"It's not perfect yet, but I think the direction seems to be the right one."

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