McLaren-Honda racing director Eric Boullier is targeting more improvement from the Woking-based outfit in Hungary where the team hopes to sustain its upward trajectory.
McLaren's affairs have clearly improved recently although it obviously remains at a long distance from its expectations.
Powered by Honda's latest spec engine, Stoffel Vandoorne made it into Q3 at Silverstone and finished the race just outside the points. The Belgian then put a bulk of mileage under his belt at Magny Cours at a wet but productive Pirelli tyre test.
"Our pace at Silverstone was marginally better than we initially expected on what is considered to be a power-hungry circuit, and therefore a track traditionally more difficult for our car to adapt to," said Boullier.
"Hungary is a completely different proposition, and one that theoretically gives us optimism that we can put the strengths of our car to the test and better take the fight to our rivals."
Obviously, any positive performance at the Hungaroring will have to be preceded by impeccable reliability, McLaren-Honda's main weakness again this season.
"Together with Honda we're working hard to improve our reliability, and avoiding incurring grid penalties – especially on this track, where our car has the potential to perform more favourably, will be key to increasing our points tally.
"On the back of a successful tyre test with Pirelli, we hope to continue this momentum with a strong result in Budapest.
"Hopefully we can follow it with useful mileage during the post-race in-season test, which we'll as a platform for further development in the second half of the season."
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