|
 The team, who ousted Martin Whitmarsh as principal in January
after their worst season since 1980, have failed to score a point in
three races despite having the same power unit as dominant Mercedes.
Jenson Button and Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen finished 11th and
12th in Spain last Sunday while former McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton
chalked up his fourth successive win with Mercedes, who have won
every race so far.
Boullier told reporters that the team, whose form has plunged since
Magnussen was second and Button third in the Australian
season-opener, was starting "from quite far back" but had everything
in place to recover.
"I think the real question about how capable we are at catching up
and how fast we can catch up will be from Austria to Silverstone,"
he told reporters.
"I’m not saying we’re going to win at Silverstone, I’m saying we’ll
know more about our capability to catch up by these races.
"I don’t think we will shift our focus onto 2015," he added. "But
it’s possible that we will draw a line after Silverstone and we may
go with more radical concepts."
McLaren are switching to Honda power units next season.
The team's home British Grand Prix on July 6 is the ninth round of
the 19 race championship, and McLaren failed to score a point at
Silverstone last year.
The second most successful team in Formula One history, after
Ferrari, failed to secure a single podium finish in 2013 and last
won a race in November 2012.
[to top of second column] |
They are still without a title sponsor and the run of three races
without a point is their worst since 2009 when they drew a blank in
Spain and the three successive races. They are currently sixth in
the constructors' championship.
Boullier hoped to see an improvement in Monaco next week.
"We have seen very, very significant progress in the wind tunnel in
the last few weeks, so I think we need to just understand where we
are, where we want to go," said Boullier.
"Monaco could be not bad for us. Our car is well-balanced in
low-speed corners and very driveable, so Monaco could hurt us less."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
