Formula 1

McLaren “determined to come away from Budapest with a positive result” – Boullier

1 Mins read
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd

McLaren-Honda Formula 1 Team’s Racing Director Eric Boullier says the team is determined to get a positive result out of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Grand Prix is the final race before the nearly month-long gap in the calendar, and whilst it offers a chance for teams to regroup and team members to relax, Boullier said that this isn’t yet on the team’s minds.

Soon, there’ll be time for a well-deserved break with their families, but, before then, we’re fully focused on the weekend ahead and determined to come away from Budapest with a positive result,“ said Boullier.

A positive result for the team is a possibility at the Hungaroring, thanks to its high number of turns and short distance making it a less power-dependent track, whilst both Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne have had winning experiences at the track.

The Hungarian Grand Prix follows on from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone – a much faster, more demanding track. This typically would have worked against McLaren-Honda, however Boullier said that the team actually performed better than expected.

Our pace at Silverstone was marginally better than we initially expected on what is considered to be a power-hungry circuit, and therefore a track traditionally more difficult for our car to adapt to.  

“Hungary is a completely different proposition, and one that theoretically gives us optimism that we can put the strengths of our car to the test and better take the fight to our rivals.”

As ever reliability is an issue, and whilst the team has seer Fernando Alonso retire twice in the two races since his two points in Baku, Boullier says the team is working hard to fix this.

Together with Honda we’re working hard to improve our reliability, and avoiding incurring grid penalties – especially on this track, where our car has the potential to perform more favourably – will be key to increasing our points tally, which we’re all so determined to achieve.

“On the back of a successful tyre test with Pirelli, we hope to continue this momentum with a strong result in Budapest and follow it with useful mileage during the post race in-season test, which we’ll as a platform for further development in the second half of the season.

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