McLaren-Honda understood the problems encountered during the Abu Dhabi tests
Eric Boullier has understood where the problems originate from during the post-season tests in Abu Dhabi and he is confident about resolving them. He hopes to see the McLaren-Honda team perform well from the first race of 2015 in Australia.
Éric Boullier believes that the problems that affected McLaren during the initial tests, at Silverstone and Abu Dhabi, with Honda are in the process of being addressed. The British team tested a Honda engine in a hybrid MP4-29 on the Yas Marina circuit at the end of November, Stoffel Vandoorne was the designated driver for these 2 days but the young Belgian was only able to complete 5 laps.
Boullier insists that the team understands where the problems are coming from, and certain solutions have been provided over the past few days: « We have changed the schedule a bit and have sent people from Honda and McLaren to inspect the car, and we are going to conduct thorough research on these issues. »
He also returns, quoted by GPUpdate, to the origin of the problem: « They worked very hard for a week and discovered everything. A recovery plan is in place. Part of it has been resolved, but now some bench tests need to be done to validate this. It was not the only problem. There were several hardware issues which obviously involved bad software code. So we first had to find out what was wrong with the hardware before fixing the software system. »
For the 2015 season, McLaren will field Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, who will be able to drive the MP4-30 during the first preseason tests in Jerez, which will take place from February 1 to February 4.
The race director also agreed with Ron Dennis, stating that McLaren Honda must become a winning team in F1.
Ron Dennis and Éric Boullier insist that McLaren Honda must arrive in Melbourne with the intention of winning the race. This year, McLaren finished in 5th place in the Constructors’ Championship and still hasn’t won a race since the 2013 season. Ron Dennis believes that the return of Honda should allow McLaren to reach the top again, furthermore, the historic leader, as quoted by Crash.net, doesn’t see why this wouldn’t happen in the first season with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button as drivers.
« I rely on people who speculate [to predict the victory], but the only important thing in my world is to see everyone who works here have the right mentality. This means doing more than they can to believe that we can win the first race. »
Ron Dennis remains convinced that by being united, McLaren will return to the forefront: « I think of McLaren-Honda as a single team. It’s very important to have two world champions in the same car; it’s obviously a very strong asset. We succeeded in convincing Fernando to join us, even though he had two years left on his contract at Maranello, which means a lot to me because he strongly believes in what we are building and I think it will be a winning partnership. »
Honda will once again be in the spotlight, for this, Eric Boullier will have to work hard for the team to overcome its failure during the post-season tests in Abu Dhabi, with the goal of arriving in Melbourne as a favorite team: « I am very happy with the team’s spirit at the moment. We have found that the motorsport culture is growing tremendously, but the first goal is to ensure that all departments are battle-ready. The entire company has the right mindset, and you can feel that an announcement like [the driver duo] helps contribute to developing this mindset more quickly. »
