LE CASTELLET, France -- Fernando Alonso said his 16th-place grid position at the French Grand Prix reflects the true performance of the McLaren this weekend and took solace from the fact he beat teammate Stoffel Vandoorne by 0.186s on Sturday.
Both McLarens were knocked out in the first stage of qualifying at Paul Ricard, piling extra pressure on the team's leadership after an angry factory worker described the atmosphere at its base in Woking as "toxic" earlier this week. Alonso, a two-time F1 world champion who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last weekend driving for Toyota, said the performance on Saturday, although poor, was in line with his expectations ahead of qualifying.
"Nothing [went wrong], normality, normality," Alonso said. "On the personal side I'm trying to do everything possible.
"I believe I'm the only one right now who is 8-0 against the champion in GP2 and all the categories he raced in.
"This is Formula One. You need the right package and the right place. These last races have not been good for us but amid all this disaster I am seventh in the [drivers'] championship, so we must be doing something right."
Asked if it felt like the team was suffering a downturn in performance, Alonso said it was better to wait for race day after a series of strong results on Sundays this season.
"It depends. The results on Sunday we are happy and optimistic about with some good performance but on Saturday after qualifying I am always here in this ring answering negative questions because our average position this year is P13, so the level of competitiveness is not at the level that we want.
"In Canada we were P15 in Q1 and we were on the borderline already two weeks ago so it is no big surprise and it is definitely disappointing and we need to keep working, but nevertheless in the past seven races we were in the points at every single race apart from the races where we had technical issues. I think tomorrow we still have a chance."