That wasn’t necessarily how it appeared when Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag at the season-opening race in fifth position.
“Now we can fight” Fernando Alonso told the team on the radio, a remark clearly intend to draw attention to the fact they had just equalled their best result from three years with Honda power in their first race with Renault.
While he chose to exit at the end of the season, Vandoorne was pushed, and the team has an all-new line-up of Carlos Sainz Jnr and another hotly-tripped rookie, Lando Norris, for 2019.
Browse all 2018 F1 season review articles.

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