Alonso: Aero, not engine, the "big question mark" for McLaren

Though McLaren's performance has been largely determined in recent years by Honda's struggle to get on terms with rival engine manufacturers, Alonso believes it will be how well his team masters the new aerodynamics that decides 2017 form rather than power output.

"Let's say that Mercedes, the top power, will be difficult to reach, we know that - not for us, but for everyone," Alonso said.

"But I think we can be close enough that we can fight.

"I'm 100 percent confident we will reach the power that we want to reach, on aerodynamics I think it is more of a question mark."

After three years of rules stability, the overhaul of the aerodynamic regulations for the coming season has the potential to shuffle the order, and Alonso suspects some teams will quickly realise others have found better interpretations of the new designs.

"When there are new rules you can be lucky or unlucky," said the McLaren driver. "It depends on how every team interprets the rules, how the philosophy of the car goes.

"Maybe you choose to go right and someone in the paddock chooses to go left and you find in race four or five that your package aerodynamically goes to the left because you started wrongly.

"Hopefully we are one of those who does the job from the beginning."

More motivated

Alonso said the possibility of a major shake-up this year combined with McLaren and Honda's improvement from 2015 to '16 meant his motivation was "high" going into the new season.

"The motivation last year was just to arrive to the Monday after Abu Dhabi and forget about 2015," he admitted. "This year is different, the motivation is higher because there are expectations for next year.

"The rules change which will mix things a little bit. There is the progress that Honda made this year which I think is very positive and gives me confidence for next year as well.

"I'm really looking forward to Australia in March. Last year it was 'OK, hopefully in Australia everything will change', but there are so many things that had to change that you have hope, but it's a big hope.

"This year we just have to fix a few things so the hope is more real. You are more motivated because of that."

Ian Parkes/Matt Beer