Alonso predicts ‘huge step’ for McLaren

Fernando Alonso is anticipating an "interesting" couple of races for McLaren with the double World Champion expecting them to make big gains.

McLaren have already taken major strides forward since their poor pre-season with Alonso not only making it into Q2 for the first time this season at the Bahrain GP this weekend, but also finishing P11.

There is now a three-week break before the next race in Barcelona and the Spaniard believes they are on the up and you can back him to finish in the points at Paddy Power.

"We are all united. We are all grown up and committed to this project. Nobody is panicking in this tough moment – and panicking can be very easy in such a tough situation," he told the official Formula 1 website.

"I predict that in Barcelona we will see the first huge step and also the power effect is low in Monaco so we should also have a good race there. My prediction is that the next three races will be very interesting for us."

The next race in Barcelona will also be his home grand prix and Alonso is determined to put up a good show for the fans.

"I promise my fans to do everything to improve the performance. The steps that we've made since Melbourne all point in the right direction," he said.

"We will be working flat out to increase the performance for Barcelona – and the odds indicate that we should. I am optimistic – even if I am aware of the fact that still a lot needs to be done."

Meanwhile, the other side of the McLaren garage wasn't a happy one in Bahrain as Jenson Button had reliability issues throughout the weekend and failed to start Sunday's race.

Besides scoring points, McLaren's major challenge is seeing both cars home and you can bet on this and more at Paddy Power.

"Well, more or less we knew that we were weak in some areas, so this will be very carefully investigated in the next couple of weeks," he said.

"Of course for Jenson the situation was unpleasant as he prepared for the race in the best way and the engineers and mechanics worked all night until close to the race start to get him on the grid – unfortunately without success. Hopefully such a situation will not occur again."