Fernando Alonso hopes McLaren's poor result in the French Grand Prix on Sunday was a one-off and that it will be back on form in Austria.
The weekend got off to a bad start as both Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were eliminated in the first round of qualifying. In the race itself, Vandoorne finished 12th while the Spaniard was running last before he retired late on due to suspension failure.
McLaren is now 22 points behind Renault, which is in third in the constructors' championship, after failing to pick up any points at the weekend.
"This was by far the worst performance of the year. So, I really hope it is a one-off and not the normality," he said.
"It was not our race, and after we had a suspension problem at the end. We could not even see the chequered flag, so a not very competitive weekend for us.
"But in five days we have another opportunity to forget this, and I really hope that Austria and especially Silverstone will be better circuits for us."
Alonso also thought his team got ahead of itself during a race in which it struggled.
"I think on the radio the team was definitely overexcited. Telling me the gaps with the fifth guy, the sixth guy, and I was last after the safety car and I had a problem with the brakes overheating," he added.
"I had one set of tyres for the whole race because we stopped on lap one to fit the yellow tyres. So, it was a defensive race and no frustration.
"We know this weekend we have been quite uncompetitive from qualifying with both cars out of Q1 and now both out of the points. We need to raise our level for Austria and Silverstone."
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