Fernando Alonso believes McLaren are going “backwards” after another poor performance in qualifying yesterday. The Spaniard himself lies down in 16th whilst team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne starts from 18th on the grid.
McLaren started the season on much better terms. They haven’t scored in the last two races despite Alonso scoring in every race up until the Spanish Grand Prix. These facts back up Alonso’s claim.
"The problem? The car is slow," he told reporters.
"It's the same car as the last three or four races. There is no problem with balance, it's just not fast enough. We go backwards -- in each race, we are less and less competitive.”
Alonso then went on to tell reporters that his performance isn’t the problem as he consistently out-qualified his team-mate.
"I think I'm the only one who is 8-0 (in qualifying) against a GP3 champion, GP2 champion. All the categories in which he (Stoffel Vandoorne) ran," he said.
As every race passes by, fans are becoming more certain that Alonso will leave F1 at the end of 2018. Some fans and pundits have suggested he could leave before November, but Zak Brown added that nobody will be leaving before Abu Dhabi.
"I can confirm that all members of the racing team will remain with the team until the last race in Abu Dhabi," Brown insisted.