Alonso: McLaren can sneak into fight at front

Fernando Alonso hopes the furious three-way battle for supremacy in Formula 1 can help McLaren sneak better results as they continue to eke performance out of their car. McLaren's results have improved since ditching Honda for Renault power units, although a promised gate-crashing of the fight at the front is yet to materialise.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull have all looked strong in 2018, although the Silver Arrows are yet to win in the opening three races of 2018 - their worst drought in the hybrid era.

Alonso has scored points in each race thus far, despite failing to make the top-10 shootout in qualifying as McLaren get to grips with the Renault engine.

Last year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a crazy affair and Williams secured 2017's only podium finish of teams outside of the big three, giving Alonso hope that similar could follow in Baku this week.

Asked for his thoughts on Mercedes' failure to win in 2018, Alonso said: "A combination I think, it is difficult to know from the outside.

"In Australia Mercedes was the strongest and without the safety car probably the victory was in their hands.

"Later in the other two races they were a little bit less competitive. So let's see in this circuit.

"It is quite open in the front, and this is maybe a good possibility for us as well. A few teams can catch up if they go into strange fights."

McLaren spent much of their wretched union with Honda claiming that their chassis was the best on the grid, although a change to Renault power is yet to see them deliver on that promise and chief technical officer Tim Goss reportedly paid for that with his job this week.

"I feel good. We want to be leading the championship. Not only scoring points, and we are not in that position yet," Alonso said.

"Unfortunately we are not competitive enough. We know that we have to improve some areas of the car.

"We know our strengths and weak points. And we are working on those quite hard to improve the car as soon as possible."