Alonso: We caught up with Renault and Haas

Five races into the season and McLaren are way better than they were last year, with Alonso scoring points in every race he lies seventh and is the Best of the Rest behind the six drivers in the big three teams.

The McLaren driver pointed out, "I think we caught up with Renault and probably with Haas as well, but the top three teams are still developing the cars at the same rate we do and unfortunately we've kept that gap."

"We knew that the upgrades would put ourselves in a better position in the midfield pack. We did a good step. We were eight tenths behind Renault in Baku, nine-tenths behind in China, but we were the same in qualifying and in the race [in Barcelona]."

Of the recent Spanish Grand Prix on home soil, where he last won in 2013, Alonso said, "We had a plan: starting with the supersoft tyre we knew that we had to overtake people in the first couple of laps and then stop early."

"Unfortunately we found that we lost positions in the first couple of corners because of the incidents, so at one point I thought that points were impossible."

"But we did a good race, a good strategy with only one stop and it's five consecutive races in the points," added the two times F1 World Champion.

Last year McLaren ditched their works Honda engine supply deal and became a Renault engine customer team, prompting high expectations of them duelling among the top three.