The two-time world champion said he was expecting a “difficult weekend” in Melbourne after a troubled pre-season in which he encountered problems with the MCL32’s Honda engine.
There was more torment for Alonso at Albert Park on Saturday, where he was well off the pace as Lewis Hamilton took pole for Mercedes.
Alonso pulled no punches with his verdict on the Woking-based team’s predicament and thinks he will struggle to finish the opening race of the season on Sunday.
“I expect a big change in the team, a big reaction,” the Spaniard said.
“We will not be 13th all season, or I will not be.”
He added: “I think we came here with no clear picture of where we were, and the worst case scenario was that we were very uncompetitive, and reliability was a big issue in testing.“More or less we’ve run all the sessions trouble-free, now in qualifying we are 13th. It’s definitely it’s positive in the bad prognosis that we had but it’s definitely not enough.“We don’t come here just to finish 13th. 13th is not our aim or our target. It’s nothing to celebrate.
“Finishing the race is going to be tough. And, if we do finish it, to end up in a decent position we’ll need help from the weather and for other cars to encounter trouble.”
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