McLaren unfortunate that the F1 season is ending, reckons Alonso

McLaren introduced a significant aerodynamic upgrade two races ago at Austin, while Alonso and Jenson Button are happy with the performance step Honda has found with its 'phase four' engine, even if it remains unreliable.

The team has made it clear that it has used this season's race weekends for testing, and Alonso says it is a shame track time is running out.

"In Austin, and definitely in Mexico, the car was going in the right direction," said Alonso.

"Aerodynamically we introduced some improvements in Austin, and the car is delivering what we expected.

"The engine is also improving every race. With the 'spec four' there is definitely more performance. The whole package is improving every race.

"Unfortunately the season is going to end, but we have a positive trend with the package, and hopefully this trend will continue over the winter without testing or racing."

Alonso said the first signs of Honda's bigger improvements for 2016 will only become apparent once dyno testing is conducted over the off-season.

"The recent races show us some of the potential we are unlocking for next year," said the Spaniard.

"With the engine side, it's a question mark because some of the improvements we are hoping for are just on paper now.

"They need to make the project and we need to run the engines on the dyno in January and February.

"Until that date we will not be completely sure in terms of progress but I'm optimistic.

"We learned a lot of lessons this year in terms of reliability, performance, the philosophy of the engine, the philosophy of the electrics and the turbo."

Button added that the recent progress shown by McLaren and Honda was an indication that the pain of this year could pay off next season.

"We all get frustrated when things don't go our way," he said.

"As a team we get frustrated because we're not fighting at the front, which is our fault - it's down to us as a team for that not happening.

"I'd rather see improvements like we had from the new spec of engine and have a few issues over a race weekend because it's all promising for the future, and that is what we are looking forward to."