McLaren's Eric Boullier insists the Woking-based outfit is in a better situation that at any time in the last two years, but Fernando Alonso's patience is running thin.
The team rolled out its new MCL32 last week in Barcelona only for some old demons to take hold when Honda's new power-unit was hit with issues, throwing back the team to its 2015 troubles.
Boullier admits that McLaren-Honda did not meet its expectations last week, and much less the hopes held by its star driver.
"We had slightly higher expectations coming to Barcelona, but then the week didn’t start exactly as we wanted," Boullier said in an interview with Formula1.com.
"I think there is a bit more work to be done in Japan to investigate why we had those issues: issues that we absolutely did not expect to have - and for sure neither did Honda."
The Frenchman conveys a sense of optimism despite the low-key pre-season start, but for how long will Alonso hold on to a drive which is taking him nowhere?
"We are not hiding anything. I always said that the track would be the judge. Fernando knows what we’ve been told, so he knew what to expect.
"Can we get back on track with what we’ve expected? I don’t know. We have to investigate what is wrong."
McLaren undoubtedly knows how to win, but the introduction in 2015 of Formula 1's hybrid engine rules has clearly put the onus on the power unit, according to Boullier.
"The power unit is driving the performance much more than ever before. In the past when you had a difference of 30, 40 or 50 horsepower you could compensate for that with a good chassis.
"But with these power units we don’t speak only about power: we speak about deployment quality, recovery quality, strategy deployment - something we didn’t know in the beginning and only discovered last year.
"And it is there where Mercedes is still ahead, because they are discovering things before everybody else. And that is why you have a much bigger performance differentiation than you had in the past."
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