Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Boullier encouraged by driver loyalty

Eric Boullier says the loyalty shown by Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button throughout McLaren's 2015 struggles shows the team is heading in the right direction.

McLaren endured a disastrous 2015 as the team finished ninth in the constructors' championship having struggled with an underpowered and uncompetitive Honda power unit. Between them, the two world champions managed just 27 points but stayed largely positive about McLaren's future despite their immediate frustrations.

In an interview with F1i's Nicolas Carpentiers about his job at McLaren, Boullier says he likes working closely with drivers and took heart from being able to keep Alonso and Button positive.

“I love the bond you can forge with a driver," Boullier said. "This is actually one of the reasons why I left DAMS – where I served as managing director – for Gravity [the driver development programme founded by former Enstone owners Gérard Lopez and Eric Lux] in late 2008.

“When the driver really trusts his race engineer – and when you think about it, he is putting his life into your hands – you can really develop and elevate him to do exceptional things by pushing him out of his comfort zone. This is probably the part of the job I miss the most, even more than the technical side of things.

“Still, my position allows me to be close to Fernando and Jenson. As every other great champion, they are obsessed with winning. Until they don’t have exactly what they want, they will put the team under pressure. If you know how to manage expectations, reassure them about the direction we are headed, that’s when they trust you. What really matters to me is that they stayed loyal until the very end of last season.”

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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.