While some described McLaren's Suzuka weekend as 'anonymous', a new low at a time the Woking outfit appeared to be on the rise again, the fact is that it was a nightmare weekend for both the team and its partner Honda, which owns the classic track.

However, heading into the Austin weekend, Fernando Alonso is confident that Suzuka was a blip and that things will now begin to improve again.

"I think our results should be better," he told the official F1 website. "If you look at the entire season so far, then we think Suzuka was rather a one-off, where we performed a little less than our expectations. We for sure should be a little bit more competitive here.

"The track in Suzuka had almost all the characteristics that did not suit our car," he continued, "but for sure the last ten days we have analysed this and it was very intense research back at the factory.

"For sure we will keep on continuing to work on this year’s car, knowing that next year everything will change. Nevertheless we will translate all the information that we have gathered this year into next year’s project."

The Spaniard is one of many drivers who is a big fan of Turn 1, a corner that is rapidly becoming one of the most popular on the entire calendar.

"The uphill braking is very special," he says, "and there is a moment where you actually only see the sky. You don’t see the turning point and it is a bit of a guess. It is very hard to repeat the line two times in two laps and this is the real challenge for us."

Check out our Friday gallery from Austin, here.