Alonso rues Alpine's lost ground to McLaren

Fernando Alonso believes Alpine has lost "too much ground" to McLaren this season despite closing in on Mercedes.

The Enstone-based team finished 21 points down on McLaren under the Renault name last season but finds itself 86 points adrift after 11 races this term.

Alpine started the season slowly, with the team revealing an exhaust issue hampered early progress whilst Alonso found his feet back in the sport and Esteban Ocon battled chassis issues.

Despite losing ground to the main competition for third compared to last year, Alonso pointed to the comparative gap to championship leaders Mercedes as proof progress had been made.

"Obviously, I think the expectations for our ambition at the beginning of the year was to repeat what Renault was able to do last year," told media including GPFans Global ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

"Having in mind that Ferrari had a very strange 2020 season with quite low performance. We were expecting that maybe Ferrari was ahead of us.

"It's true as well that we lost a little bit too much ground with McLaren, that Renault was fighting with McLaren until the last race last year, and we are not able to do that this year.

"Looking and analysing all the numbers, in a way, we reduced the gap with Mercedes, and with some of the pole positions.

"Even if we are P7 [now fifth after finishing first and fourth in Hungary] in the constructors' championship, we reduced the gap with the leaders, and that's how tight everything became. From 9th to the top, everyone is closer.

"The same with Aston Martin, Racing Point last year was fighting for podiums and even won one grand prix, and this year we are closer to them.

"It was a little bit up and down for all the teams, for us as well."

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