Formula One: It's not a charity, McLaren must improve, feels Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso

Melbourne: Fernando Alonso believes McLaren will need a miracle to stand any chance of avoiding an embarrassing start to the new F1 season. The British team arrived in Melbourne in crisis after a poor pre-season in which they encountered a number of reliability issues with their Honda engine.

"The team worked hard in the last couple of weeks to improve the situation and arrive a little bit more ready to compete here," Alonso said. "But in F1 there are no miracles in two weeks so I expect a difficult weekend," Alonso added.