MARINA BAY, Singapore -- Fernando Alonso says it will be a "massive achievement" when McLaren-Honda scores the first win of its renewed partnership and believes the team has made encouraging progress this year.
Honda returned to the grid with McLaren in 2015 just as Alonso signed a three-year contract with the team, but struggled for reliability and performance in its first season. Progress has been made this year with regular top ten finishes at recent races, but the team is still a long way off the podium and needs to make a big step under next year's regulation changes to start challenging for wins again.
Nevertheless, Alonso says his belief the team will return to the front is stronger than it was at the same point last year.
"The trust was always there but sometimes last year it was just hope, there was just too much hope and you want to see the results at one point," he said. "You want to touch the result at one point and now that we start feeling that I think that everyone is more excited, everyone is more motivated and everyone wants to arrive in Australia next year already now. This is a very good feeling.
"I think we really need this progress, to see it, because last year we have a lot of trust in the project, this year in the beginning we have a lot of trust, no one had any doubts that McLaren-Honda will win sooner or later but to see us now competing with some of the teams that it was unthinkable some months ago, even Spa finishing in front of one Williams, one Ferrari, it was really needed I think for the team. Everyone in the factory and everyone in the team now see this progress after the hard work and now it's extra motivation for everyone because we all know that we just need that last step."
Alonso says the first win will be a huge achievement for the team, but warned there was still a huge amount of hard work needed to achieve it.
"I think 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, or if Stoffel [Vandoorne] will have that chance or whatever, but when that day arrives everyone that was involved in this project from day one, from the very beginning, from zero, from being 10 seconds away in winter testing last year, 5.8 seconds in Australia last year, and things like that, when arrive that first win it will be a massive achievement and hopefully we will feel very proud.
"To make that real we need to work very hard for the next months and we need to accelerate the process, because in Formula One no one waits forever. Things change quickly, new regulations are coming for next year, and maybe new regulations are coming after two years so you really need to speed up everything you do in Formula One because there is no time to relax."