McLaren says Alonso and Button still trust in Honda F1 project

Button expressed frustration at McLaren-Honda's current plight for the first time this season at the Spanish Grand Prix, when he described his car as "scary" to drive, and suggested the team would struggle to score a point all season.

It was a heat-of-the-moment comment from Button, who then had 100 trouble-free laps during the post-race test at Barcelona and proclaimed the car to be much improved.

Boullier claims from the outset it was made clear to Alonso and Button the first year of Honda's return to F1 would be a rollercoaster affair.

"We decided not to build expectations," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.

"It would have been absolutely wrong to say to Jenson and Fernando that 'this year, guys, is going to be your year'. Effectively we knew it would not be.

"If you want to build a long-term programme you first build trust and transparency. That's the key.

"That's rule number one within McLaren, that everybody understands and trusts each other, that we're transparent.

"We know where we are, but we also know where we're going and that is reassuring enough, that we believe in what we are doing.

"This is why they have this positive feedback."

Five races into the team's so far point-less season, Boullier is grateful to the support currently being received from McLaren Group CEO Ron Dennis.

It would have been easy for the highly-meticulous Dennis to have picked fault and turned on the senior personnel in his organisation.

But Boullier added: "He knew it would be a long-term project.

"It's obviously our mission to make it as short as possible, but he is also part of this transparent and trusting loop.

"He understands, so he is contributing a lot to making things better and faster, so I have to say his support is very good.

"His experience, understanding and leadership is helping to push people, for them to keep their heads down. It's going well."

DID YOU KNOW...

...With zero points for McLaren after five races, this is the worst start to a season for an all-champion driver line-up in F1 history.

The champion pairing with the previous worst record is last year's Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen combination at Ferrari. Their tally of just two podiums is the only time so far in F1 when a team with two world champions in its cars has failed to win a grand prix.

F1's previous all-champion team-mate line-ups - Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna at McLaren, Prost and Keke Rosberg at McLaren, Jim Clark and Graham Hill at Lotus (pictured below), and Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina at Ferrari - all produced multiple wins between them each season.