Fernando Alonso believes McLaren will be in a “much better position” in 2019 af𒅌ter understanding the problems with its current Formula 1 car.

Despite a switch to Renault engines this year McLaren has endured a tough season and currently sits sixth in the constructors’ champion𒆙ship having scored points on just two occasions since the summer break.

While fellow Renault-powered teams Red Bu༺ll and Renault have enjoyed much better fortunes, McLaren has struggled with its uncompetitive MCL33, which was dubbed as “an extremely poor race car” by꧟ CEO Zak Brown earlier this year.

But 🍃after carrying out a series of experimental tests during recent grand prix weekends with new developments planned for 2019, Alonso, who will leave F1 at the end of the current campaign, is confident McLaren has made encouraging progress.

“I think 🌳the car is definitely going to be more competitive next year,” Alonso said ahead of this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

“From Julꦉy we’ve been testing experimental parts next year. I think there’s a lot of optimism in the team with the direction the car took i꧑n the last couple of months.

“We understജood our problems. We know that last year the c༺ar was very competitive on the chassis side, we know that.

“We have the GPS to compare, we have our speed in thღe corners - Iܫ qualified seventh here and finished eighth, or something, so definitely the car 12 months ago was very competitive in some areas.

“We lost some of that competitiveness this year, we understood why. I thi🍬nk next year the team will be in a much better position and I’m happy for them.”

Alonso has managed 50 of the team’s entire 𓂃points tally (62) so far this season, though McLaren has fallen behind its midfield rivals in the development race as it prioritised working to understand the issue♔s it faced with its 2018 challenger.

Asked 🐲to specify which areas McLaren lost performance in, Alonso replied: “Well, it’s a private thing in the team but definitely we took some directions in this project that were not giving the results we were expected.

“Some compromis💫es were made in the car for a lot of hဣopes on performance, they were not coming so we only took the downside of those decisions. So next year should be much better and the lesson is taken.”