McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says Honda “downtuned everything” to simply try and finish last week’s Australian Grand Prix.
The MP4-30 had failed to complete more than a 12-lap stint heading in to the first race of the season and qualified on the back row of the grid in Melbourne. While Kevin Magnussen failed to even make the start of the race due to an engine problem, Jenson Button completed the race as he finished two laps down in 11th place.
While McLaren’s performance was described as "a little victory" for the team as it completed its first race distance, Boullier says Honda had to go to extreme lengths just to be able to try and run the car consistently.
“We downtuned everything as much as we could, and we monitored very carefully lap after lap how the engine was going,” Boullier said. “So the target was to try to put some mileage on the car.”
When it was put to Boullier that the team would have to go even further to deal with the head of Malaysia next weekend, he replied: “I’m not sure there is much left!”
Button himself says small improvements can lead to major gains in lap time for McLaren in the coming races.
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