After a generally much better pre-season in terms of reliability than the year before, the team headed to the 2016 Australian Grand Prix with progress made to the Honda power unit. McLaren showed progress with the car by qualifying 12th and 13th. However, the race was a disappointment as Alonso was involved in an accident with Haas's Esteban Gutiérrez which caused Alonso's car to barrel roll a few times before landing upside down. His car was totally wrecked and Alonso suffered from broken ribs and a collapsed lung, ruling him out of the next race in Bahrain. Button's race was badly affected because of this, as the red flag was shown after he had made a pit stop. With a few cars in front of him making a free change of tyres as a result of the red flag, Button struggled through to finish 14th.