F1
Nate Saunders, General Editor, F1 6y

McLaren has '100 percent confidence' in current team set-up

Formula One

McLaren's senior management is confident the team has the right people in place to help turn its fortunes around in 2018.

McLaren's switch to Renault power has not achieved the step up the grid the team predicted at the start of the season. While it is in a much healthier position in terms of points scored compared to this time last year it is still nowhere near making inroads into the significant gap between the top three -- Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull -- and the rest of the grid. In fact, it is yet to establish itself as a regular in Q3, the session featuring the quickest qualifiers each weekend.

In April it was reported the team had parted company with Tim Goss, one of the three senior engineers who shared technical responsibilities at the team. At the time McLaren said it was undergoing a "proactive, ongoing" review of its entire operation in a bid to return to winning ways.

When asked if he was confident recent changes can help the team improve in 2018 and into 2019, racing director Eric Boullier said: "Well first of all, it's not down to one designer. We have 100 percent confidence in the group of people we have at McLaren.

"We can blame obviously some issues on the car. Definitely I think the car this year is not the car we were expecting to have. It's just a matter of understanding why and making sure we have the right vision and leadership for the future to conduct and make sure we can design and manufacturer competitive cars.

"I believe in the people we have in place today. There is a great talented bunch at McLaren."

McLaren's current position has led to suggestions it might abandon development on its 2018 car in order to switch its focus to next year's car as early as possible. Boullier does not believe this would be a sensible approach.

"I think it's worth to develop it for a couple of reasons. The first one is to understand what's wrong and to not repeat any kind of platform mistakes in the future. I think there's still time to develop this car, potentially curing the low-speed lack of grip which has a big impact on top performance. So those are two reasons why we should carry on.

"We also need to make sure we don't compromise next year's development as well as understanding the car. That's the balance which we are working on. We are flat out on trying to cure these car issues, and to make sure we understand it, and obviously we will start soon on next year."

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