Why Alonso won't be McLaren's saviour

McLaren grabbed headlines during Formula 1 pre-season testing that were out of proportion to its place in the overall competitive order. That wasn't just because it regularly cropped up near or - on two days - at the top of the timesheets, or for its illustrious history, but also because of the appearance of Fernando Alonso. Or, as we should now call him, Ambassador Alonso - charged with preaching the good word of McLaren worldwide as part of his ongoing association with the team.

It was a similar story last season. Once McLaren had firmly established itself as deep midfield fodder, the main attraction was either speculation about Alonso's future or his latest must-hear utterance about what he had just done with the recalcitrant machine.

Confirmation that Alonso will definitely test the 2019 McLaren later this year had a similar impact at Barcelona, attracting far more interest than what Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris were doing on track or the heavy lifting being done by team personnel trackside or at base.

Alonso also confirmed what nobody seriously doubted, that he has still got his eye on an F1 comeback. Last year he spent a significant amount of time complaining about modern F1's limitations - and some of those criticisms were justified - but at 37 he still knows he can jump into a good car and compete for a world championship. If he can find such a machine, that is.

"If one day Formula 1 again arrives at the moment when I can be competitive and I can eventually be winning, I cannot be relaxed at home at that moment," said Alonso. "I need to keep updated, and the best way is to be involved somehow."

So that's great news for McLaren, right? Alonso is willing to jump into the 2019 car and is ready and waiting, if and when McLaren gets back to frontrunning form. The trouble is, the chances of that happening in a realistic timescale for Alonso are not great.

Just look at the Renault works team, which still looks to be midfield material even after three seasons of heavy investment and steady improvement. Brilliant as Alonso's performances for the team were from 2015-18, they served as a daily reminder of McLaren's precipitous decline in competitiveness. The same thing will happen this year.

As long as Alonso remains affiliated but inactive, he confirms McLaren isn't ready

Alonso has become the ghost of McLaren glories past, a rare gold-standard driver ready to leap back into the fray when the team is good enough for him but otherwise a reminder that things aren't yet going that well.

As long as he remains affiliated but inactive so far as racing goes, he confirms McLaren isn't ready.

While he won't be as ubiquitous this season, pursuing other projects such as a World Endurance Championship crown to win and the Indianapolis 500 to take on, when he is in the F1 limelight it will be as the living embodiment of McLaren's faded grandeur.

Presumably McLaren will be keen to get Alonso back in the car in 2020 should the test later this year go well but, given the glacial progress made by most teams up the grid, that's too soon.

F1 is clearly unfinished business for Alonso. And F1 knows it, which is why Alonso's absence is going to be far harder to miss than the last time a season started without a big name - after Nico Rosberg's shock retirement at the end of 2016. There's an unmistakeable Alonso-shaped hole in F1 and McLaren will keep reminding us of that all year.

It's clearly in Alonso's interest to jump in the McLaren for a day or two, just to keep himself up to date and remind the paddock that he still exists. McLaren will benefit from having him in the car - any driver with that experience and of that quality will have something to offer.

"What we are running today was born probably in June last year when we identified our problems, our weaknesses, our philosophies that were wrong with that 2018 car, and we started discussing and having meetings, [doing] simulator work for the '19 car," Alonso said in Spain.

"So now that 2019 is a reality and it is running on track, probably some of the results they are having they don't know the background of those changes or that philosophy that's behind that design. That's something I can give my input on."

Alonso's input would be valuable to any team. But whether that's more beneficial than what either Sainz or Norris, in particular the latter, who would benefit from some extra practice outside F1 weekends, could offer is up for debate.

And who knows if having Alonso waiting in the wings ready to take their seats next year or beyond might have an impact? Especially for Norris.

Alonso knows how far McLaren is away from being a serious contender at the front. At the earliest, the major rule changes for 2021 offer the first opportunity for it to leap into the big time - and even that would take something extraordinary.

But you never know how the driver market might shake out, when another shock retirement, unexpected move or even injury could open up an opportunity with a big team in need of a proven performer. He'll have half an eye on that too, and mileage in the McLaren would help his cause in such a situation.

But McLaren should be wary of being too in thrall to Alonso. He will be set on getting back into a frontrunning F1 car as soon as possible and that doesn't have to be a McLaren, even if it will be more convenient if it were.

Staying current will help that, even if Alonso justifiably claims that this year's cars aren't so different that he wouldn't still be relevant even without a run in a 2019 machine.

"It's not very important, testing the car," said Alonso. "The cars are very similar to last year, it's not a big change. It's not that the tyres have a different manufacturer or the engines changed dramatically or the rules or anything.

"The most important is to be updated on the rules, the tyres, how these five compounds behave, what will be the strategies for the race. Things that are very simple, but to keep updated on everything is probably the biggest thing for a driver not racing.

"Driving the cars in these days makes a smaller difference than in the past because they are very sensitive to everything; sensitive to the tyre compound you select, sensitive to the temperature. Even if I test the car I cannot have the wide range of operation of that car.

"Engineers analyse and make decisions looking at the telemetry, but I can be the link between what they see on the data and what the driver may feel" Fernando Alonso

"I probably have enough knowledge of what the drivers are saying, what the engineers are seeing on the data, and all together make a decision on what's needed on the car, what's the strength of the car, what are the weakness and try to mask those on the race weekend."

Alonso does leave room for getting in the car helping him stay relevant, even if his overall position is that it isn't necessary. But keeping Alonso on side and in the game for a potential return is not something that should be the team's priority.

It's true he can have value for the team. He already has a longstanding relationship with Sainz, while he knows Norris well both through their time together with McLaren and their assault on the Daytona 24 Hours with United Autosports in 2018.

Arguably, his biggest value can be as an almost informal consultant to McLaren's drivers rather than for the wider team.

"After 18 years I know most of the circuits, most of the tricks here and there, and especially with Lando being his first year anything that may appear on a grand prix weekend - on a Saturday, on a Sunday morning or whatever - maybe to have a driver behind the engineers thinking probably helps, because they only see the telemetry.

"They analyse and they make decisions looking at the telemetry, but I can be the link between what they see on the data and what the driver may feel or what the message is passing on the radio. Hopefully I can help as much as I can."

More important for McLaren is that it focuses on what's going to be a lengthy period of rebuilding and self-improvement.

While its pre-season form was unremarkable, that's to be expected given where it ended up last year. In modern F1, it takes a long time to climb back to the heights you once made your own.

That's the real story for McLaren in F1 this season: the efforts of the hundreds of personnel who can turn around the ailing team's fortunes and how its new-ish leadership harnesses that potential. Not Alonso.

There's only one thing that can save McLaren: and that's McLaren itself.