Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Boullier understands Ecclestone's frustration with F1

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Eric Boullier says he understands Bernie Ecclestone's frustration with the current situation in F1 but believes the teams can help improve the sport.

Ecclestone described F1 as "the worst it has ever been" on Monday, with his comments coming on the first day of pre-season testing and just one day before key meetings regarding the future of the sport in Geneva.

Asked if Ecclestone's comments infuriated him on the opening day of a new season, McLaren racing director Boullier said he can appreciate the commercial rights holder's point of view.

“I got amused first. I think I understand his frustration but I think we have to live with what we have today and tomorrow there is an important F1 Strategy Group meeting and meeting of the F1 Commission in Geneva, so we will see where we can vent our frustration as well and make the sport better which is what we all want I guess.”

Asked what he believes the cause of the frustration is, Boullier replied: “He’s the commercial leader of this sport so if you see your TV viewers going down or something then that is concerning.

"But it is not our matters. Our matters is to make sure we can run the cars on the track as per the regulations.”

And Boullier is confident the teams have managed to get to a point where they agree on what they want future regulations to achieve.

“Everybody has their own opinions. We are very much in favour of making [the cars] more exciting and faster. The drivers obviously would be happy to have a faster car - or let’s say a car more difficult to drive - so there have been discussions now for six months to try and make the cars faster and a little bit of a different shape to the car.

"I understand in different working groups they have agreed now so it is up to the top people in Formula One to decide what they want to do.”

Follow live coverage and timing from pre-season testing here

GALLERY: Pre-season testing day one

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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.