The results on Sundays have been good for McLaren. But qualifying? Not so much.

In the first two events of the season, McLaren cars dropped out in Q2. Fernando Alonso qualified 13th on the grid ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, while teammate Stoffel Vandoorne came in at 14th.  

Alonso, who finished fifth in Melbourne and seventh in Bahrain, said the team has to get faster to capitalize on their strong showings on race day.

“The team did a good job with the strategy, the pit stops and reliability, we got the points, good points. Looking at how the weekend started and the pace we had it’s clear we have to improve, to make a step forward. We need to raise our game, because what we have is not enough, but on Sundays we’re delivering the results. Fifth in Australia, seventh here, that’s 16 points, so it’s good,” Alonso said.

“What counts most is not your grid position, it’s your race pace, your start, the whole first lap, your tire management, your fuel efficiency, there are a lot of factors and we’re handling better than just qualifying speed. We were too slow in qualifying and need to improve that because when we start behind we compromise our race result.”

Alonso sits fourth on the circuit with 16 points, 34 behind leader Sebastian Vettel while McLaren sits third in constructor standings with 22 points, 43 behind leader Ferrari.

“We saw in testing, in Australia and here that we’re lacking a bit in qualifying pace but then the race pace is a bit better. It’s on Sundays we get the points, so this trend is good as we keep scoring some good points. But for sure we need to start further up the grid,” Alonso said.

The next stop on the F1 circuit will be in Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton took home the top spot last year. Viewers can catch all the action LIVE on TSN1, TSN4, TSN5 and on TSN GO.