Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Boullier: No issue with McLaren’s F1 budget

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McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says there are no problems with the team’s budget following a drop to ninth in the constructors’ championship last year.

The return of Honda as power unit supplier saw McLaren endure a difficult season in 2015, with only Manor - which failed to score - finishing below the team in the constructors’ standings. With that result comes a drop in commercial revenue, while Ron Dennis’ prediction that the team would have a new title sponsor early last year never materialised.

While the team retains a big budget and two world champions as part of its driver line-up, Boullier says the bigger picture is still a strong one for McLaren.

“Definitely we at McLaren had a difficult year last year and we are not where we want to be and definitely we have the ambition to be,” Boullier said. “If you want to be the winning team you need to have all the best elements and if you have the best drivers before the best chassis or the best engine it’s a risk but it’s also a challenge than for the chassis and the engine to be the best.

“I think that as far as we are concerned, in terms of money, we have signed three new sponsors this year: Chandon, Richard Mille, Volvo Trucks. We have renewed another three sponsors.

“We are part of the McLaren Group which is profitable this year so I don’t think we have any issues on this part of the business. After that, it is just to be the best combination to catch Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull and others.”

McLaren failed to score in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, with Jenson Button finishing 15th and Fernando Alonso crashing out spectacularly early on.

Scene at the Australian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix - Quotes of the weekend

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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.