McLaren pulling 'everything together' on Sundays - Alonso laments qualifying setbacks

Fernando Alonso says McLaren are putting "everything together" on Sundays after securing double points finishes in Australia and Bahrain, but says their struggles in qualifying are holding them back. Neither Alonso or Stoffel Vandoorne made it into the top-10 shootout in either race so far this season.

Swapping Honda power units for Renault engines is yet to help McLaren gate-crash the fight for race victories, but they sit third in the constructors' standings after two races.

Alonso has spoken routinely of his certainty that McLaren will be potential race-winners by the end of 2018, but they must first fix their one-lap deficiencies.

"For us, consistency has to be the key," says Alonso before China.

"We've been able to pull everything together on a Sunday so far – a combination of both hard work and good fortune – but we haven't given ourselves the best chances on Saturday, so it's important we pull the whole package together.

"It won't happen overnight, but we know where our issues lie and we know that we need to work hard to overcome them as soon as possible.

Team effort. Team work. ????
Credits to @McLarenF1 for this resurgence ???????? https://t.co/J53EtVLk02 — Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) April 9, 2018

"In the meantime, we'll be pushing hard in China, as always, and continue our fight to the front of the midfield pack."

Although they are just eight points off last year's total haul after two races, McLaren sporting director Eric Boullier says they are yet to be content.

"Our results are solid but haven't come easily, and we are by no means satisfied with our progress so far," said Boullier.

"We know there's a lot of work to do and we're working hard, day and night, to bring more performance to the car each time we hit the track.

"Our biggest deficit is our qualifying performance and addressing this is our priority.

"The Shanghai International Circuit is a very different challenge again to Melbourne and Bahrain.

"The long straight, high top speeds and the low and medium-speed corners mean it has a bit of everything, so our objective is to get on top of the circuit's characteristics from Friday onwards."