Fernando Alonso: Formula 1 should pay fans to watch boring cars

Alonso spent the final 35 minutes of the 90-minute session at Interlagos looking on from the sidelines after he was forced to pull his McLaren off track due to a data anomaly found in the ERS water pressure.

He said what he saw from the trackside - and from an FOM camera he commandeered for a spell - left him bored.

"Fans want to see fast cars, something where you cannot close your mouth after you see the car passing," said Alonso

"I was 30 minutes today outside the circuit and I was sleeping.

"Thankfully I found this chair and this camera. If not, it's impossible [to watch].

"We should pay the people who are in the grandstands to watch the cars passing."

Alonso at least provided one of the highlights of the day when invited to take control of the TV camera, a year on from causing a social media sensation when he found a deckchair to sit in after his McLaren failed early in Interlagos qualifying.

"I need to get up to speed with technology and improve my skills with that joystick [that controls the camera] now, which seems very, very sensitive," said Alonso.

"They told me over the radio they would broadcast from that camera [Sergio] Perez arriving, so I tried to find Perez, but I found the sky and the asphalt instead, but not Perez!

"I feel very bad about my poor performance with the camera. I am thinking of going back later on to have some practice with that camera with the Porsche Cup in case tomorrow I stop again.

"Unfortunately we had a problem in practice today, but I tried to have a good sense of humour and hopefully I won't repeat the same thing tomorrow."

Alonso completed just 18 laps in the afternoon, missing out on a long run at the end of the session, and team-mate Jenson Button only managed 19 laps due to rising temperatures from his car's exhaust area.

Button conceded both drivers missing out on long runs left McLaren on the back foot.

"On low fuel it is not too bad, but on high fuel we still need work," he said.

"Obviously we didn't do many laps, so it's a bit of an issue after both cars had issues today.

"Mine is very easily resolved, it's just our running today.

"Hopefully tomorrow we can get some good runs, but high fuel is an area where we don't know because we didn't do many laps."