McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says it is still early days to pass judgement on his team, but admits that the first test of the season in Barcelona was a disappointment to all concerned and explains why Honda are failing to deliver.
Boullier has never experienced his team’s huge successes, having joined the legendary outfit 2014 he only knows heartache, nevertheless his post race and post testing debriefs are gems of diplomacy… and he was at it again in an interview with the official Formula 1 website.
Asked about the state of affairs at McLaren ahead of the second test in Spain this week, Boullier said, “It is still early days. We had slightly higher expectations coming to Barcelona, but then the week didn’t start exactly as we wanted.”
“I think there is a bit more work to be done in Japan to investigate why we had those issues: issues that we absolutely did not expect to have and for sure neither did Honda.”
Asked where the team is now compared to last year this time, Boullier insisted, “In a much better situation. But to be frank, it is not good enough for our expectations and the expectations of our fans – after three years.”
“The power unit is driving the performance much more than ever before. In the past when you had a difference of 30, 40 or 50 horsepower you could compensate for that with a good chassis.”
“But with these power units we don’t speak only about power: we speak about deployment quality, recovery quality, strategy deployment – something we didn’t know in the beginning and only discovered last year.”
“And it is there where Mercedes is still ahead, because they are discovering things before everybody else. And that is why you have a much bigger performance differentiation than you had in the past.”
Asked to pinpoint the problems Honda are having with the new technology, “Because they are still three years behind in time to the others: Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari started in 2010 – and all these three started with an existing organization, as all three were already doing F1 engines.”
“In 2013 Honda decided to come back to Formula One and started from scratch: empty buildings! They had to buy everything – and find the right people. So to be fair you have manufacturers who had seven years and are still struggling – and Honda started four years after the others.”
“These units are so complicated that you have to be really process driven and go step by step. Unfortunately there is no short cut,” added Boullier.
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
No comments:
Post a Comment