Alonso says McLaren updates are working

The Spanish driver and teammate Jenson Button have been handed 25-grid penalties each after having had to change several components of their cars, including gearbox and engine.

They will also need to serve stop-and-go penalties during the race as they were unable to serve their grid penalties in full.

Alonso has been running with McLaren's upgraded car this weekend, and despite all the problems, the former world champion says McLaren is moving in the right direction.

"We've had a lot of problems during the weekend, and we couldn't run as much as we would have liked, but the main goal is to test the updates, especially the aero ones," said Alonso.

"We have a car with a different configuration than the other, and I believe we are going in the right direction at least, because my car has handled better all weekend, so it's a small step forward.

"We knew it would be difficult here and we have a lot to do, but at least it looks like we are going in the right direction."

Testing weekend

Alonso qualified in 15th position today, while Button was knocked out in Q1 and finished down in 17th.

The Spaniard said qualifying was irrelevant to McLaren given the penalties for the race.

"Today's result doesn't matter," he added. "We are starting last tomorrow and we have to serve a penalty over the first laps so it doesn't matter if we are 12th or 13th or third.

"We are starting last tomorrow and we'll be last by some margin.

"This is just a weekend of testing. We could smash our heads against the wall or try to learn a lot of things, so we are using the second approach.

"I'm sure it looks different from the outside, but the important thing is what we are seeing here and the most important thing is that the updates work."