Updates and clever ideas. That’s what Fernando Alonso says Renault-powered McLaren are working on in a bid to catch F1's big three – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Alonso’s fifth place in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix equalled the best result McLaren managed to score in the last three years with former engine supplier Honda.

His team mate Stoffel Vandoorne finished ninth, pushing McLaren’s points tally to 12 and putting them in fourth place in the constructors’ championship.

Having declared ahead of the race that Melbourne would be the team's least competitive race, Alonso is understandably bullish about the quality of this year’s McLaren’s chassis and the Woking squad’s ability to to make gains and move up the pecking order.

“We saw the potential of the car, we understood we had a good machine in our hands,” said Alonso. “Now is the time for McLaren to come back to the top positions, and to do so you have to compete against the best teams in the world: Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.