Honda corporate culture inadequate for F1 - Boullier

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier  believes Honda needs to do more to understand the culture and approach necessary to be successful in F1.

The Frenchman's statement may seem surprising as it is directed towards a partner who enjoys a prominent presence in Formula 1's history books.

But McLaren's  prospects of a another troubled campaign - it's third since it initiated its partnership with Honda - has the second most successful F1 team behind Ferrari on the back foot just a few days before the 2017 season kicks off.

"They only need one thing, which is to understand and integrate the F1 racing culture," Boullier told Autosport.

Honda is apparently reluctant to receive outside assistance with its new hybrid era engine program, with Boullier insisting the Japanese company has yet to fully comprehend the pace of development and performance linked to F1.

"What I mean by that is: the way we behave in racing and Formula 1 is all driven by a calendar, by some fixed targets, fixed dates, lap time gains.

"We always try to go to the best solution as fast as possible."

"Where a car manufacturer is running a project, you can have a few weeks delay and it's not going to change the product, it's not going to change the business model.

"In racing, if you don't bring your upgrade for race one, in race one you will be nowhere."

"That is this racing mentality. It's as far as going to suppliers and making sure that if they do something in one month, the next time they do it in three weeks, and from three weeks to two weeks.

"We value more the time gained than the money spent. This is a different approach from the rest of the world."

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Speaking of time, while Honda has installed a unit in Milton Keynes, it's main engineering base remains in Japan, a situation which has led to slow implementations and delays which are counter-productive to the fast pace moving modern world of F1.

"This is why Mercedes is based in England, and I guess they benefit from the supply chain, from people with experience of F1," Boullier explained.

"Our suppliers maybe cost twice as much [as Honda's] but are three, four, five times faster. In some ways you can realise the corporate influence is not helping to be efficient.

"The more you behave like a corporate company, the more process inherited from a corporate company, the slower you are, the less agile you are, which doesn't fit the racing culture."

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