Alonso: McLaren already good enough for podiums

Fernando Alonso says McLaren are already prepared to fight for podium finishes in Formula 1 this season. The Spaniard finished fifth at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as McLaren enjoyed better performance with Renault power after seasons of struggle in partnership with Honda.

Though neither Alonso or Stoffel Vandoorne qualified in the top 10, they both sealed points on Sunday at Albert Park, with the Belgian coming home ninth.

Though Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes appear to retain their advantage over the rest of the field, Alonso says McLaren will be in position to capitalise on any mistakes.

"We were two places from the podium in Australia, and they were very close in the last laps - [Daniel] Ricciardo and Kimi [Raikkonen] fighting - so anything can happen in the race.

"I won two races in 2008 with ING Renault, I was on the podium in 2009 with the introduction of KERS and that car I think we were ninth in the championship.

"So anything can happen in F1 if you are close to that position, the opportunities will come and we will be there to take it so I think its very possible this year."

Day of preparation, media activities, meetings. Bahrain GP mode ON. #mclaren #f1 #14 #bahrainGP

A post shared by Fernando Alonso (@fernandoalo_oficial) on Apr 5, 2018 at 3:16am PDT

After three years of struggling to an underpowered and unreliable Honda engine, Alonso is happy to have his fate in his own hands thanks to the better performance of Renault's power units.

It's still a reasonable gap to close to the leaders but I think it's up to us now," he added.

"It's up to the team to deliver the performance in the next weeks, the next four, five, six grands prix.

"If we are able to bring performance to the track and close the gap and be in reasonable distance with pole position and the podium places then it's up to us to deliver the result.

"The next two months are crucial for our hopes in this year's championship but hopefully we can keep improving.

"If it's not a world championship fight we'll hopefully have some podiums or some regular top five, top six [finishes], not just like in Australia with a double retirement for Haas and Virtual Safety Car, this could be normal.

"It's probably the first time in the last three years it's up to us to deliver the result."