McLaren trying to unlock potential

They might be struggling now, but McLaren believe they have untapped potential to unlock in their Honda power-unit.

McLaren swapped the all dominant Mercedes power-unit in favour of a technical partnership with Japanese manufacturers Honda for 2015.

The move saw McLaren swap the front end of the grid for the back as Honda have struggled for both performance and reliability since their return to Formula One.

But whilst their demise has been frustrating for their fans, neither Two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso and 2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button have often let their frustrations boil over.

Both drivers are winners and they believe in the McLaren Honda project, the duo would have expected a difficult first season, but perhaps not quite as bad as 2015 has so far transpired.

But part of the reason why their frustrations have remained in check is the performance of the McLaren MP4-30 chassis, which McLaren chairman Ron Dennis believes ‘is actually extremely good’, especially in the corners.

Where it has really hurt McLaren so far has been the engine.

?It is not completely down to only power ? it has also to do with the driveability of the engine, which has proved very difficult and complex to manage so far,? McLaren racing director Eric Boullier told formula1.com.

Boullier went on to explain that all the teams have the same level of electrical power in their power-units, but the difference is that other engines are better at recovering that energy during qualifying and the Grand Prix.

The problem for McLaren is if they attempted to use the full recovery of the MGU-K then it would create reliability problems.

But once this hurdle is conquered, then McLaren can unlock Honda’s potential.

?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.?

He concluded: ?The positive is the level of commitment of Honda, and the fact we know that our cars have not tenths but seconds of potential that can be unlocked, We cannot physically use that because we have reliability issues, but if we overcome those we will be able to make major steps forward, believe me.?