Alonso still happy with 'risky' McLaren move

Jun.8 - Fernando Alonso showed the first signs of frustration on Sunday as he accused McLaren-Honda of making him look like an "amateur".

Asked to save fuel during the Canadian grand prix, the Spaniard hit back via radio: "I don't want (to), I don't want!"

Told that he would have "big problems" later in the race if he did not save fuel, Alonso replied: "Already I have big problems -- driving like this, looking like amateur."

The radio disagreement only highlighted McLaren-Honda's competitive crisis at present, having lured Alonso to the new project with the highest salary in all of F1.

But one reporter told Alonso in Montreal that, with an underpowered, fuel-thirsty and unreliable engine, "This is not what you signed up for is it?"

Indeed, Canada was a horror weekend for the Anglo-Japanese collaboration, but team supremo Ron Dennis said that a car upgrade for Austria could mean McLaren will "surprise a few people" there.

And Alonso insists he has no regrets about switching from Ferrari, even if Bernie Ecclestone gave an emphatic "No" in Canada when asked if he thinks the Spaniard will ever win another title.

But Alonso said he made the right move.

"To be fifth or sixth in the races and third in the championship (for Ferrari), we made a risky decision," he is quoted by Spain's El Confidencial, "which was to go to McLaren-Honda.

"We are paying the price now, but if I hadn't (moved) I would be fifth or sixth. I am happy and I have an optimism for the future that I did not have before," Alonso added.

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