McLaren’s racing director Eric Boullier says the team cannot waste opportunities to score points due to reliability problems.
Jenson Button retired from the last race in Bahrain due to a power unit problem, but Boullier is optimistic the issue has been resolved and McLaren can have a strong weekend.
"While we definitely saw a reassuring improvement in our performance in Bahrain, we cannot take anything for granted, and it’s imperative that we don’t waste opportunities to score valuable points due to lack of reliability, as we saw at the last race," he said.
"At the very least, we must learn from every situation, and in the case of Jenson’s power unit issue, we’ve done so, so we go to China with continued optimism that we can try to maximise the potential of our package.
Commenting on the return of last year’s qualifying system, he added: "This weekend will also see the return of the 2015 qualifying format, which is certainly a positive step for the fans and will hopefully offer a more watchable, engaging qualifying process than the interim solution we saw at the last couple of races.
Fernando Alonso was deemed unfit to race in Bahrain and was replaced by Stoffel Vabdoorne, who will be on standby once again for China.
"Despite the decision from the FIA medical team that Fernando was not able to race, the team prepared admirably for the weekend, and Stoffel did a fantastic job to score his and the team’s first championship point of the year, in his debut grand prix,” Boullier explained.
"Once again, Stoffel will be on standby until Fernando has his routine meeting with FIA doctors on Thursday, and until then we will be readying ourselves as normal. Fernando has been recuperating at home and training as usual, and we, like him, hope to see him back in the car. We’ll accept the outcome – whatever that may be – and plan accordingly."
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