Alonso: We want to win, I came here to win

McLaren-Honda and Fernando Alonso are starting to play down its chances of bursting off the grid at the very start of the 2015 season in Melbourne, but the Spaniard is adamant that winning and another Formula 1 world title is his target.

After almost two decades with Mercedes power, the Woking based outfit has struggled for laps and pace in the early phase of its new works partnership with Honda who return to the pinnacle of the sport after a five year hiatus.

Until now, McLaren has been talking up its chances with the so-called 'size-zero' MP4-30 car and the innovative turbo V6, but team figures now admit that Australia might be looming too soon for the new British-Japanese project.

Star recruit Alonso was the slowest overall during the four days of testing at Jerez, his aggregate lap time no less than 15 seconds behind the pace setting Ferrari duo, the team he left to join McLaren

And the MP4-30 was also dead last on the mileage list, with its 79 laps totally dwarfed by the 516 laps racked up by 2014 champions Mercedes.

When asked to set a target for 2015, Alonso was quoted on Wednesday by Spanish media: "First we need to see how competitive we are. In the first test we could not run with maximum power."

"Once we have all the power, once we are in the second or third race of the championship, and we see how fast we are, then we will get a target for this first year," said the double world champion.

Nevertheless Alonso, who has returned to McLaren after a five-year stint at Ferrari, is adamant about his ambitions, "The goal is to win the championship; we want to win, I came here to win."

"I do not know if it will be in the first year, second year, third year, but I hope it is as soon as possible," he explained on a visit to Japan this week.

"I saw many talented people when I visited the facilities at Sakura. I saw many advances compared to the other teams; scientific, technological advances."

The Spaniard's love of Japanese tradition is well known and he has a big Samurai tattoo on his back and often 'tweets' from old Samurai texts.

"I love Japan," he admitted, "Japanese culture, tradition ... Honda has always been very attractive after the successful partnership they had with McLaren in the 80s and I feel very privileged."

"I saw a lot of passion and discipline at the first test, all the engineers and mechanics of Honda and McLaren working together.

"That's something that is part of the DNA of Honda and I am very happy to be a part of it," he added.

"With a new concept and engine partner, obviously the less we run the more difficult it's going to be to catch up, or let's say, the later we will be ready to compete," team boss Eric Boullier told Press Association.

"Every time we can't achieve all our targets in terms of mileage or development we push back the date where we are able to exploit 100 per cent of our car and our power unit to fight for the win," he added.

Indeed, McLaren-Honda was the least reliable and the slowest car on track at Jerez last week, the first four-day test of just three similar outings before Melbourne.