Alonso: First McLaren-Honda win will be massive

Fernando Alonso reckons bagging that first victory for the renewed McLaren-Honda partnership will be a “massive achievement” for the driver who succeeds.

McLaren revived their relationship with Honda last season with their best showing to date being Alonso’s P5 in the 2015 Hungarian GP, a result he matched this year in Monaco.

And although the podium and victories are still someway off there have been signs of encouragement with McLaren scoring in three of the last four grands prix.

As such the team is dreaming of victory with Alonso saying it will be huge for the driver who bags that first P1.

Asked if that first win would be his ‘greatest achievement’, he replied: “Yes. The first win with this project will be quite a big thing for any of us.

“I don’t know if I will have that chance, if Stoffel [Vandoorne, 2017 team-mate] will have that chance.

“But when that first win arrives then everyone involved in this project from day one, from being 10 seconds away in winter testing last year, and 5.8s in Australia in the first race last year, it will be a massive achievement, and we will feel very proud.”

The Spaniard, though, admits there is still a lot of work to be done to get there.

Next season Formula 1 is introducing a host of new technical regulations which could yet throw the form books out of the window.

“Everyone is more excited, more motivated and everybody wants to arrive in Australia next year already now,” added the Spaniard.

“To make that real we need to work very hard for the next months and we need to accelerate the process because in Formula 1 no one waits forever.

“Things change quickly. New regulations are coming next year. Maybe new regulations are coming after two years.

“So you really need to speed up everything you do in Formula 1 because there is no time to relax.”