This weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, a home race to Fernando Alonso, and his final race before heading across to America to race in the Indianapolis 500, should be a thriller and while the Spaniard may not be up fighting at the front, he is hoping that the upgrades to his McLaren Honda will help move them up the grid a little.

However, that said, most of the teams are sporting upgrades here this weekend so they wont really know exactly where they stand until the action gets underway, but the hope is that this weekend will be the start of a new championship for them.

Speaking at the FIA official press conference on Thursday, Fernando spoke of his hopes for his home race, his impending Indy debut, and his future plans…

 Fernando, what are you hoping to take out of this weekend in Barcelona?
Let's see what we can do here. Definitely our moment right now is not the best. We gave been underperforming in the first four races and we didn't finish any of the grands prix yet, in my case, so definitely, you know, the first step is to improve, which is what we've been doing so far, which is not difficult. The second is to find how competitive we can be here on this track, which is quite different compared with the last couple of races. Plus, with the upgrades that everyone brings here, normally, things may change, we need to find out where we are, in which positions we can move this weekend. Second is reliability. We need to raise our game and hopefully finish with both cars this race and accumulate some mileage. Some things that we need to put in place, starting this weekend, for the rest of the season. So hopefully this is the starting point of a new championship for us.

How have you and team dealt with the Did Not Start in Sochi and what news is there on the recovery programme with Honda?
Well, actually I still don't know what happened exactly in Sochi. We had problems with the ERS on the formation laps. I tried to restart the whole thing during the formation lap a couple of times, but on the last attempt the car didn't start. Yeah, really, really bad for us, and as a team not being able to start the race with Stoffel's car in Bahrain, with my side of the garage in Russia, so completely unacceptable and we need to, as I said, raise our game here in terms of reliability and hopefully finish with both cars.

Two weeks to go until your Indy 500 race debut. You've had some practice at the Brickyard, how's it going?
Did you watch it?

Yeah, on the stream.
You really have nothing to do! I mean yeah it was different. Probably as I expected it to be. The car felt quite different. Running this asymmetric set-up definitely feels not normal to drive so you need to adjust a little bit your mind set going into the run, into the first corner, but yeah, at the end of the day I felt a little bit more comfortable. I was able to feel some of the set-up changes and things like that, because I think the driving technique is quite different, so step-by-step. I did the first one, which is just the first feeling with the car, but now, when, I think next week we start the free practice and you start running with other people around etc I think I will hopefully build a little bit more confidence and start understanding what the car needs and what I need as well to be prepared for May 28th. So yeah, two intense weeks ahead but pretty much looking forward.

You have an impressive collection of cars here in Spain that you had the pleasure to drive in. Will this Indy car be added to that collection in future at your museum?
Yeah, it's coming. After the race the car will be in the museum as well. Every car I jumped in from 2004 or something like that, it's always in my contract that it will be in my museum afterwards. This one is no different.

I read an interview in which you said next season for sure you will be in Formula One again, with McLaren or with any other team. Does it mean you will consider coming back to Ferrari as well?
As I said at the beginning of the year, this is my last year with the contract I have now with McLaren. I will have to think a little bit after the summer, because now it is quite a busy period and now plus the Indy 500 thing, it will not be the time to think any further than this summer. But yeah, around September or October I will need to consider what I will do next year. If it's time to find other challenges outside Formula One or if Formula One will be an opportunity to win the championship, which is my main goal. I'm very open to anything. I think with this year's cars and the 2017 regulations, the cars are good to drive. I think Formula One is back in a way. We see this real power of efficiency, corner speed, things we were missing in the last couple of years. The cars look nice from the outside, with the big tyres, everything, so I like this Formula One. So my intention or my first priority is to race next year here and not only to race, I want to win. Now that I have not any more obligations with McLaren… I'm happy with the team, but we are not winning, so if from here to September or October we are in a position where I see clearly a possibility to win in 2018, I will be more than happy to stay with the team. If it's not the case, I will be more than happy to talk to anyone.

It's been a few months now since Ron departed the scene and Zak came onboard. Can you give us some idea of the culture change that's gone on behind the scenes over those few months, what Zak has bought to the team and what benefit you can see going forward to push McLaren back up to the front again?
Well, I think they are very different and I think there is a not a magic solution, or a magic way to lead a team to success. I think, you know, Ron had a fantastic time in the past in McLaren with a lot of success and now with Zak things are a little bit more open, inside the team but also for you guys, outside, how you can approach McLaren now is different, on the commercial side, also in a technical side. I think also with Zak the biggest difference is the vision and the approach for the brand, for McLaren, which is a little bit different and wants to span the McLaren in different worlds and different categories. We'll see with the Indy 500, I think it is not only this year: I think McLaren will be in the Indy 500 for the future. I think McLaren will be in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the future, as they were in the past, when they won the Indy 500, when they won Le Mans. So that's the biggest change we can feel inside McLaren, that Zak will not only concentrate in Formula One, will concentrate in McLaren as a race team in different series and the most important thing is obviously to sell cars and to sell the McLaren cars you need to open to new markets and especially the US market is probably the biggest one.

Fernando, how do you rate the progress Carlos (Sainz) made in Formula One?
I think everyone can see the progress that Carlos made in the last three years. He started already impressing a lot of people because I think he has the talent, he won the smaller categories until F1 and I think this young generation, they are very well prepared and they arrive into Formula One with a lot of already practice, simulator, they follow a program in the junior academies, from the Red Bull academy or the Ferrari academy or wherever, so I think they arrive to Formula One and it is not a shock. They are ready. They are prepared. If you add that preparation to the talent that Carlos has, already in the first year he was at the very, very high level. Now with experience, I think he's one of the best on the grid. Hopefully I can fight a little bit this year, like last year that he started well but then he dropped behind at the end of the year, so we'll see this year.

If you had theoretically a free choice to get one of the four engines next year for McLaren, which would you take?
I think Honda, no? OK, three engines. I cannot answer. You always want the best engine on your car and McLaren and Honda, they have this partnership, which is a long-term partnership with, I think, a very strong commitment from both. Now things are not going in the way they thought in the beginning but they are putting a lot of effort to improve the situation. So, I think the McLaren-Honda name and partnership will be for the long-term. So, I think they need to find performance and extract power from the engine. Hopefully we can see the progress in the very short term and this year fight for something big.