Fernando Alonso has suggested McLaren fans entered the 2018 season with too high expectations of the team's performance.

For this year, the Woking-based outfit ditched the Honda engine, which had proven so problematic since 2015, in favour of Renault a move which had the Spaniard raising hopes of race wins and maybe even a championship bid.

Now that neither of those ambitions look realistic for now, the double world champion doesn't seem to understand why there's an air of disappointment about how McLaren has performed relative to the top three teams.

"I don't know what exactly people were expecting from one season to another where the regulations stay the same," he was quoted by PlanetF1.

"There were three teams ahead of everyone last year and this year they stayed ahead of everyone."

The 36-year-old also believes McLaren can be very proud of the progress they have made which has seen both cars in the points at the first two races, putting them ahead of Red Bull in third in the Constructors' Championship.

"If we look at the facts, not the feelings or the wishes or the dreams, if we see the facts, this is a very good start," Alonso said.

"We didn't have any mechanical failures or operational failures and I think we are the only team, no?

"With the pitstop [issues] from Ferrari, the pitstops of Haas and the Red Bull retirements, even Mercedes they changed the gearbox already a couple of times. It's only McLaren," he claimed.

"I think so far the start of the season has been very positive. But I understand that the expectations are always difficult to meet and a potential championship fight."

The big weakness so far for McLaren has been qualifying with neither Alonso nor Vandoorne able to make it into the final top 10 shootout in Australia or Bahrain.

Instead, it has been the pace on a Sunday which has saved them and their lead driver knows that has to improve.

"For us, consistency has to be the key," he said, previewing the Chinese GP.

"It won’t happen overnight, but we know where our issues lie and we know that we need to work hard to overcome them as soon as possible.

"In the meantime, we’ll be pushing hard in China, as always, and continue our fight to the front of the midfield pack."