McLaren believe they can be competitive come the end of the 2015 season and that remains their target according to racing director Eric Boullier.
The Woking outfit has scored just five points in nine races thanks to Jenson Button’s eighth place in Monaco and Fernando Alonso’s tenth at the British Grand Prix.
The team have made it clear that the Honda power unit is to blame, but they and Honda are persistently working to improve both performance and reliability and massive leaps forward are on the horizon.
“We are not doing a good enough job right now – but we know that we have a lot of potential in our car,” Boullier told the official F1 website.
“Just give us time. Once we’ve solved some of the reliability issues we will absolutely make significant steps forward.
“A consequence could be that if you fix one problem you jump ahead not by tenths but by half a second; another problem – another half a second…”
Boullier insists McLaren can be in a competitive state by the end of the current season, but much of that relies on Honda getting it right and if they do, the Frenchman reckons a podium isn’t impossible.
“We still target being competitive by the end of the season,” he added.
“If we can unlock the potential we will maybe be fighting – with some luck – for a podium. If you can deploy your MGU-K power on the straights on every lap, that is worth a lot of time. Today we can’t do that.”
