McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says McLaren should be expecting “at least” a point-scoring finish in the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend.
Having struggled for mileage during pre-season testing, McLaren had to run its Honda power unit in a conservative state in Australia just to finish the race with one car. Malaysia saw both cars retire, but Fernando Alonso finished 11th in Bahrain as the team showed consistent improvement. Boullier admits the result in Bahrain was a fair reflection of the car’s pace at this stage of the season, but a major update in Spain should move it much further up the grid.
“We don’t have enough performance yet, that’s it,” Boullier said. “There is an engine performance deficit. In a straight line you can see the top speed is not there yet but it’s coming, step-by-step.
“If the promised engine performance and chassis performance - both packages - are delivering what we are told, if I trust the [Bahrain] result we should be expecting points, at least.”
And Boullier says McLaren’s rate of improvement has been helped by a progress in the relationship with Honda.
“Clearly the understanding of our needs is starting to be understood by them. The expectations we have and they have are starting to match, which is good.”
Click here for a look at the radical Honda power unit design
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