Having finished fifth in the season opener, and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne ninth, despite warning that it would be McLaren's least competitive performance of the year, Fernando Alonso is targeting great things for Bahrain and beyond.

Indeed, rather than looking to dominate the midfield, the Spaniard believes that the Woking outfit is now ready to start mixing it with the big three, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

"We saw the potential of the car, we understood we had a good machine in our hands," he said ahead of this weekend's race. "Now is the time for McLaren to come back to the top positions, and to do so you have to compete against the best teams in the world: Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

"To be at that level we need to be better than them," he adds, referring to the need for McLaren to maintain a rigorous development programme, "and we need to close that gap as soon as possible. This will come with updates and clever ideas, and I'm sure we'll bring those very soon."

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1. Posted by Mad Matt, 03/04/2018 11:32

"What he says makes sense. He didn't say that they are able to compete with the top three, he said that they need to be in that position and to do that they need updates and clever ideas.

Can't really argue with that.

Can they do it? That's another question.

They says there are a load of updates which were meant for Australia but didn't make it due to the problems they had in testing. If these now arrive and if they bring more performance I think that'll move them nearer to Haas but still at least half a second off Red Bull..... we shall see!"

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2. Posted by Kkiirmki, 02/04/2018 18:56

"With the Melbourne race being an anomaly, let's wait until we get to a 'real' race track to see how well McLaren are really doing."

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3. Posted by F One, 02/04/2018 14:27

"What has Alonso been smoking?"

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4. Posted by imejl99, 02/04/2018 13:00

"Catch Haas first. I look forward to see where Haas finishes, barring pit stop mistakes."

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Alonso targets 'big three'

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