McLaren can ‘forget’ midfield rivals: Alonso

London : Fernando Alonso believes McLaren can “forget” about its midfield rivals and target Red Bull over the coming Formula 1 races.

Alonso finished fifth in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, splitting Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in McLaren’s first F1 race with Renault power.

But that result was aided by Verstappen’s early spin, a well-timed virtual safety car, plus tough breaks for McLaren’s midfield rivals - with both Haas cars retiring and Renault’s Carlos Sainz struggling with a drinks bottle problem making him sick.

The McLaren MCL33 was only the sixth-quickest car in qualifying too, but Alonso believes the team can already look at taking the fight to Red Bull - the fastest of the three teams powered by Renault.

“Definitely it’s going to be better and better [for McLaren],” Alonso said. “There’s a lot of potential in the car still to unlock.

“It’s the first race with this combination, McLaren [and] Renault power unit, so a lot more to come.

“Hopefully from Bahrain we see another step forward and Red Bull will be the next target.”

Pushed further on the likelihood of McLaren taking the fight to Red Bull in the near future, Alonso responded: “Right now they’re still clearly ahead of us - they’re in that exclusive group of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.