Alonso: We must find more performance

The two-time world champion was 10th in first practice and 12th in the second 90 minutes, though in both cases his KERS-assisted Renault was more than a second slower than pace-setter Nico Rosberg.

"I am happy but I could be more happy," he said after the first practice sessions of the season in Melbourne.

"Pace-wise it is difficult to understand, it is only Friday but we were 10th in first session and 12th in second, so it is not a position to fight for a podium and wins.

"Hopefully tomorrow we need to find some performance in the car, we need to be a little bit quicker and we cannot afford to start the race in the middle of the pack if we want to score some good points."

Alonso added that his progress was hampered by the later starting time of the second practice session (1630 - 1800), which meant that the track temperatures were lower and the shadows longer on parts of the track that had tree cover.

"To be honest it was a little bit worse than the first practice session, and compared to last year, because the sun is quite low at this time," said Alonso. "It's a little bit worse but it is not a big problem and hopefully it will be fine for everyone, but there is no doubt it is better at two o'clock for us for visibility."

The 27-year-old added that he wasn't concerned about the late race start time - 1700 - however: "As I said because it is that low in terms of looking at the mirrors and corners, you don't see as clear as you see at two o'clock so that is one thing, but it was not a huge problem, it will be fine."

Despite his warnings, Alonso said that he felt Renault made a significant amount of progress during the first three hours official running of the season.

"It was fine," he said. "The first day is always difficult, there are many things to discover. It's the first time we have tested in warm conditions after the winter in Europe, so we gathered useful information as usual.

"We will try to analyse all the information tonight and hopefully tomorrow we will have a normal improvement."