Alonso's car: 20 km/h slower than the best in Barcelona

There is a lot to fix, a lot of work to do, a lot, perhaps too much. The chassis is still not the best, the aerodynamics still don't offer anything particularly special and the engine, despite high expectations and definite improvements made, is not at the same level as the best because they too have made advances.

These factors mean that the top speed of Fernando Alonso's McLaren Honda is still not competitive, the car struggles when entering bends and the driver doesn't have the power delivery to call upon, causing a lower acceleration which, as seen on the last day of testing in Barcelona the best the British car and Japanese engine could do under the control of Jenson Button was almost twenty kilometers per hour worse than that of the best, the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.

Keep in mind also that the car didn't have the high load spoilers on-board with which higher speeds are experienced and still it remained below even the Manor of Rio Haryanto.

The Sauber proved to be fastest utilising the Ferrari power unit, which clearly demonstrates an important step forward for the Italian engine.

Hamilton is first of those at the top, 8.4 km/h down on Ericsson, while Vettel, with a higher load configuration was even further away (16.4 km/h).

For his part, Carlos Sainz managed to reach 325.3 km/h, which is 12.5 km/h less than the sprint leader.

We'll have to wait and see what happens in Australia and to what extent the improvements still to be made to the McLaren Honda can make it more competitive. If they can, they will, in an attempt to get Fernando Alonso back in touch with the elite.