Two races down and already McLaren-Honda has a point to show for its efforts in Formula 1 this season. That's a point more than it managed across the first five races of last year. But for Jenson Button's retirement in Bahrain it might have scored more.
The MP4-31 is close to being a regular top-10 contender on pure pace, rather than back-of-the-midfield fodder like last year's MP4-30. Undoubtedly this is a big improvement on 2015.
Given its resources and championship-winning pedigree, McLaren should be producing a chassis capable of running at the front. Thanks to the restructuring completed since racing director Eric Boullier joined the team in late-2013, it seems McLaren is on the right track in that regard.