Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Boullier certain McLaren will challenge Mercedes

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McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says his team "definitely" has the potential in its Honda partnership to challenge Mercedes.

Mercedes has been the dominant force in F1 since the introduction of the V6 turbo power unit regulations, winning 24 of the 29 races since the start of 2014. McLaren moved from Mercedes power to Honda at the start of this year, and Boullier told F1i during an exclusive interview he is confident there are "seconds" of performance still in its package.

Asked if he feels McLaren has a concept with the potential to challenge Mercedes which has yet to be seen, Boullier replied: "Yeah, not now, but definitely eventually.

"One of the reasons we keep the drivers happy because they know the commitment behind them of both Honda and McLaren. Yes, they are impatient because they would like to start being competitive now and we do this job because we are competitive people, but there is a process to go through.

"These engines are very, very complicated - very complicated - but this is the price to pay to have the technology and be the pinnacle of motorsport.”

Eric Boullier exclusive interview: Steadying the McLaren-Honda ship

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.