McLaren haven't had upgrades since Spain!

No upgrades since Spain? That’s what Fernando Alonso has said about his 2018 McLaren, which was by far the slowest car during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix earlier this morning.

Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne qualified 18th and 19th respectively at Suzuka circuit in McLaren’s worst qualifying session this season and their worst for many, many years.

McLaren have lost touch with Renault and Haas in the battle for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship this season and are now looking over their shoulder at the reborn Racing Point Force India, who have 35 points from four races since their re-introduction to the standings.

They are only 23 points behind McLaren with five races to go and look likely to eat into that difference tomorrow, with both Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez in the top ten.

And now Alonso has revealed the reasoning behind McLaren’s poor form, claiming that they haven’t received any upgrades since the Spanish Grand Prix in May!

He said: “The lack of development is probably the most of this result.

“I think we constantly see new parts to the midfield guys every weekend, because we see their cars, we see the pictures you guys take of the cars etc.

“We see always updates to everyone, and from probably Spain, we don’t have any. So I think it’s probably the reason why. But also the circuit itself I think maybe has different characteristics than Spa or whatever it shows a little bit more our weakness.”