F1
Nate Saunders, General Editor, F1 6y

McLaren boss Eric Boullier insists he is the right man to lead the team

Formula One, AutoRacing

Eric Boullier believes he is still the right person to lead McLaren despite the team restructure and growing speculation about his future at the team.

Although McLaren sits fourth in the constructors' championship, it has not made the sort of dent into the advantage enjoyed by the top three -- Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull -- as was predicted ahead of the current season. Despite having an engine which has already won a race in 2018, McLaren has progressed to the final portion of qualifying just once in the opening five races and finished no higher than fifth.

The consequences of the slow start to 2018 are already starting to unravel. The team has already officially parted company with Tim Goss, who made up part of the team's triumvirate of technical chiefs, while there are rumours it has done the same with Matt Morris and Peter Prodromou.

Boullier, the team's racing director, is confident in his ability to lead the team back to the front end of the grid.

When asked if he still felt like the man who should lead McLaren's revival, he said: "Yes, I think so.

"It's hard work. There's always a lot of expectation, obviously from McLaren and from a lot of people. I think in my past life, I've been managing, rebuilding, restructuring a few teams, and I won with all of them, in any category I was. We need to make sure we can make it and deliver it on time."

McLaren introduced a significant upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix which earned glowing praise from driver Fernando Alonso. The team hopes the new package can help move it into the position of best of the rest behind the front three.

Boullier insists he has not been issued an ultimatum or set any clear targets because everyone knows what McLaren should be striving for.

"No orders are needed. We know what we need to do. We had to improve the reliability, we had to improve the performance. We have now some other teams using the same power units, so at least we have some references. This is what we are working on. It's a long way to go.

"Spain was another step, but any future races, we keep bringing development. Modern Formula One is not about bringing a magic package. It's bringing step by step and incrementally a lot of performance through the season.

"Everybody is doing the same. We have to work harder than the others to get where you want to be."

^ Back to Top ^