"It will be very tough"- McLaren boss on team's 'chance' to stay in fight against Alpine this season

McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl has said that it's going to be very tough to stay ahead of Alpine in the battle for P4 in the championship.

McLaren snatched the position from Alpine at the Singapore GP two weeks ago, where the French team suffered a double DNF. The tide turned in the very next race on Sunday at the Japanese GP, as Alpine had a spectacular race. Esteban Ocon secured P4, while Fernando Alonso finished P7 as the team reclaimed P4 in the championship.

Talking after the race, Seidl stressed the importance of maximising each result and that it was the only way the team could challenge Alpine. He said:

"It's important now for us really to focus on ourselves, make sure that we execute clean weekends, extract every single session the maximum that we have at the moment in our car. Only then do we have a chance to stay in the battle with a very strong Alpine team. We have to acknowledge they did a great job so far this season. It will be very tough for us to stay in this battle until the last lap in Abu Dhabi, but that's what we're here for."

The McLaren boss hinted that reliability, which has played a key role in the battle would be paramount till the end of the season. He said:

"Reliability will play an important part as well in the last races now. But still I think we have a good car; we have a good team; we have two strong drivers, and if we get our act together, I'm sure we can stay in this battle until the last lap."

Fernando Alonso added that the battle between the two teams would go down to the wire. He said:

"There's going to be some weekends that we can score a few more points than them, some others, we will score less. I think Singapore was standing out because it was a big loss in points there. But I think it's going to be very, very tight until Abu Dhabi."

Alpine (143) lead McLaren (130) with four races to go.

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Esteban Ocon's points haul helps Alpine extend lead over McLaren

Esteban Ocon had a strong weekend at Suzuka, which helped Alpine stretch their lead on McLaren. After his impressive outing in the rain-marred race, Ocon said:

I think it was a matter of time until we could really show what the car was capable of. We were able to do that this weekend in general – we were fast in all conditions. It's been awesome. It's been pure pleasure to drive that car in qualifying yesterday and in the race. A few things to review, but we scored, which was important."

Alpine will look to build their gap on McLaren at the next race in Houston.