Jun.8 (GMM) McLaren has offered to help works engine partner Honda to end the current crisis before it becomes “embarrassing”.
Team figures have put a brave and united face on the struggles throughout 2015 to date, but Canada was a particularly bad weekend marred by performance, fuel consumption and reliability problems.
Fernando Alonso showed the first signs of frustration during the Montreal race, and also turned to gallows humour as he posted an upside-down photo of the timing screen.
“Depends upon how you look at it,” read the caption to the photograph, which when seen upside-down showed Alonso and Jenson Button at the very ‘top’.
As the season progresses, it is becoming harder for McLaren and Honda to justify their struggle.
So the first public sign that McLaren sees Honda as the main problem is now emerging.
“I guess it’s not embarrassing now, because they are new into the programme,” said team boss Eric Boullier, “but it’s a question of how fast they will recover.
“It is hard not to blame,” he is quoted by AFP news agency. “It is a management exercise and we don’t want to be like Renault and Red Bull, fighting in the media. There is no sense in that.”
Instead, Boullier said McLaren is keen for Honda to find ways to speed up.
“Of course it is easy to blame the partner,” he said, “but as a partner we also have to be supportive. We need to help them to accelerate this recovery time.
“To be fair, they decided to join formula one two years ago and it is not easy to be here and win (immediately). We just need to make sure we are properly equipped to do it.
“When you want to catch up, basically you have to put more resources in the programme. And, if you want to do it short term, you need to bring more experienced resources,” he added.
Boullier said McLaren is willing to help with that.
“We have some software, IT, whatever it is, and we have this experience at home. It’s important Honda recover,” said the Frenchman.