Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai says he is "not satisfied" with McLaren's performance during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.
The fastest McLaren time in qualifying was over five seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton's pole position time, with Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen both set to start from the back row on Sunday. Arai says he was prepared for a difficult start to the season but was surprised by how slow McLaren was.
"We are trying our best, but I am not satisfied with today," Arai said.
And Arai says Honda has opted to run its engine in a "very conservative" manner following a lack of mileage in pre-season testing.
"You may remember we announced our return to Formula One in May, 2013, less than two years ago. We've done a lot of hard work, and finally we are in Melbourne.
"In Barcelona I expected a good place for us in Australia, but unfortunately we don't have the know-how and experience about running in high temperatures.
"We cannot lose the engine in the first race, so our data set is very conservative for the weekend, so that's the reason why we are down on power with the MGU-K and the engine itself. That's the reason why."
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