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While Red Bull has enjoyed a perfect record of three wins across the opening races in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia, in the latter event Mercedes replaced Aston Martin as the second-best team.
But the cancellation of a return to China has now left a four-week gap in the calendar until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, across 28-30 April.
Given the pause and then a return to Europe after a run of flyaway races, teams are expected to debut their first major car upgrades packages in Baku.
The introduction of new performance-enhancing components will open the door to the competitive order changing much more often as the season wears on, reckons Alonso.
Asked by Motorsport.com whether falling behind Mercedes in Melbourne had previewed a nip-and-tuck battle between Aston and the Three-Pointed Star, the double world champion said: “It seems that qualifying is quite important now, becau …