Boullier: McLaren-Honda to start 'ramping up' Formula 1 performance

The Woking-based team secured its first double finish of 2015, although Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button finished out of the points in 12th and 14th.

However, despite three races having gone by without the McLaren-Honda partnership scoring a point, Boullier says getting both cars to the end of the race is an important milestone.

"We've made some progress and it's actually a good achievement because we had a reliable package here and it's good to see the race was absolutely trouble free," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.

"So it's a very good sign and very encouraging and rewarding for Honda and the guys back in McLaren. So it's very good."

And having so far raced with the engine turned down to protect the power units, which are limited to four per season, Boullier says the team can now start to turn it up as well as adding aerodynamic performance to the car.

"Now we can power up a little bit and we know the potential," he said. "There's a lot of potential coming from this point.

"We have some new specs coming from Europe. In terms of chassis as well, we'll keep bringing parts in Bahrain.

"We have a good package coming in Barcelona so we're ramping up. I think it's as we said - it's not tenths by tenths but half a second by half a second.

"So as Fernando said, we started from too far behind but we are catching up. Now we are just behind the midfield pack so hopefully in a few races we will be in front."