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Critics expected too much of re-united McLaren-Honda F1 team

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has hit back at the critics he feels wrongly expected the team to be instant winners following their Formula 1 reunion with Honda this season

After four grands prix of the current campaign McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button find themselves languishing towards the rear of the grid due to a number of issues, predominantly courtesy of the Honda power unit.

Slowly but surely the faults are being eradicated and positivity remains high, with all within the Woking-­based marque convinced strong results will materialise over the course of the year.

But to those who believed McLaren and Honda would hit the ground running and challenge Mercedes and Ferrari this campaign, they have been sorely mistaken, with Boullier expressing his frustration at their initial over-­the-­top hopes.

"Nobody is happy with the qualifying position and the race results we've had, but this is what we have," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.

"Neither driver is happy with the situation, but they are happy with what they can see coming, and I can tell you the atmosphere within the team is fantastic, everybody is full of work, full of commitment.

"The most important thing is we know what we are doing, where we are weak and when I say 'we' I mean McLaren and Honda ­and we have to work at it.

"The worse thing is to have the wrong expectations. It is true people were expecting Honda to turn up with McLaren and win everything, but that was the wrong expectation."

MERCEDES'S PERFECT EXAMPLE

Boullier believes the naysayers only need look at Mercedes as the perfect example of an organisation that rode into F1 on the back of the success of another team, but who had to bide their time before finally discovering their own winning formula.

"Mercedes is a special case because they benefitted from a big change in the regulations, which was a good move for them," added Boullier.

"But they showed there is no magic wand. You can't turn up, bang, and win. It is impossible.

"After Brawn GP it took Mercedes four years to build their organisation, something similar with Red Bull, which is a normal cycle in racing.

"We are not happy to be where we are, definitely not, but we are flat out everywhere to make sure we will get there, and we will get there properly.

"And when I say properly, there are some steps and stages you need to go through because you can't buy experience and time.

"But when we eventually get there, we will be good enough for the long term."

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