How to keep Button and Alonso happy

"With races this year, especially at altitude, we've really struggled. Basically cars are disappearing into the distance. If you're not winning, but you're actually fighting, at least you're fighting and that's what you enjoy. But the whole time trying to hold on to the back of the field - it's not really much fun..."

That's how Jenson Button summed up his 2015 season driving for McLaren-Honda. How enormously frustrating it must have been for Button and team-mate Fernando Alonso to race at the tail end of Formula 1's midfield, especially when between them they have won 47 grands prix, stood on the podium 147 times and been crowned world champion three times...

These guys are good, among the best in the world undoubtedly, but they are not miracle workers. Racing for McLaren-Honda last season must have felt similar to trying to ice- skate with slippers on. With both legs tied together. While wearing a blindfold.

Honda has made a number of improvements, but the early signs are that they are not likely to be life-changing. Certainly, McLaren-Honda is not looking set to challenge Ferrari and Mercedes for the world championship in 2016.

That suggests another season of toil awaits its drivers. It may be better than the last, but probably not worthy of the talents of two of the best drivers on the grid. Neither Alonso nor Button can be considered spring chickens any more, so time is of the essence if they are to get back to winning ways before they retire, or retirement is forced upon them.

Button was on the fence over continuing with McLaren-Honda © LAT

Alonso repeatedly vocalised frustration at Honda's lack of competitiveness last season, and there were persistent rumours (attributed to Alonso's former Renault team boss and manager Flavio Briatore) that Alonso could sit out 2016 if the car did not improve substantially. Meanwhile, Button admitted towards the end of last year that he had considered walking away from F1 entirely, before eventually committing to the final season of his current two-year contract with McLaren.

Caught in the middle of all this is McLaren racing director Eric Boullier, who was instrumental in luring Alonso back to McLaren and who must manage the egos and expectations of two world champion drivers while the team endures the worst competitive period of its recent history.

"They are world champions, they are talented, but they also have the experience and they understand the full picture," says Boullier. "They have been there before. They have both been champion, but they have not been champion every year, so that means there is always a build-up process.

"They know that if you want to be winning in Formula 1 there is clearly a process. You have to be at the right time in the right place. You can jump into a team that is about to win, or you can also jump into a team and help them to build up. This is where we are now."

Boullier now has a tough balancing act to perform. On the one hand his drivers are both experienced enough and talented enough not to have to prove anything to anyone, but their track record also makes them less likely to hang around if McLaren-Honda continues its competitive drift at the back of the grid.

As Boullier puts it they will "step out straight away" if the reformed Anglo-Japanese alliance fails to progress fast enough. "The only downside now is maybe less patience, but at the same time they have more understanding about the situation," Boullier adds. "It's a very fragile situation. They are not patient but they have the understanding. And you can keep both of them [balanced], but I promise you it's very fragile.

Boullier says avoiding "bullshit" has helped keep Alonso on side © LAT

"Especially because they have been bullshitted too much already. That's the discussion I had with both of them. They have been bullshitted so many times in their racing lives it is something I am very, very cautious about.

"In motor racing you can get easily excited. Simulation, numbers, calculations, engineering goals, whatever - you can be misled very easily."

Although Alonso was the most vocal in his criticism last year, he has at least consistently reaffirmed his commitment to the McLaren-Honda project since those rumours of a potential sabbatical surfaced. That message remained firm after his first day driving the new MP4-31 at Barcelona in February.

The double world champion has a history of fragile relations with the teams he's driven for, but he looks happy and relaxed back at McLaren, despite the ongoing problems. The lack of performance is clearly frustrating for one of the best drivers on the current grid, but it hasn't yet placed a huge strain on his relationship with the team.

McLaren's racing operation is also a very different proposition under Boullier to the one Alonso walked away from after 2007, which undoubtedly helps. "I'm a racing guy and he is also very racing oriented," Boullier reckons. "As long as you don't bullshit [things will be fine]. The problem of racing - it's always been this way through my career, from day one - you have the proper racers and the bullshitters. And there are a lot of them in racing, because laptime you cannot cheat.

"It's like golf - you are playing against yourself. A lot of golfers are shit and they cheat. But at the end it doesn't make you a better person or a better player. It's the same in racing. Laptime is laptime.

McLaren-Honda's pre-season has been slightly better, but there are still issues © LAT

"So my philosophy is I'm a racer, let's put everything in place and it will work [eventually]. We will win, but I'm not a bullshitter and I think Fernando appreciates that. There is a trust now because everything I tell him is going to happen or not going to happen is true."

While not exactly ideal in terms of the team's PR, the drivers are encouraged to express themselves - even if that means railing publicly against a 'GP2' engine, as Alonso did in Japan last year. Boullier wants to foster a culture of honesty within Woking, because being open about failings is the only way McLaren-Honda will progress.

"You have to address the right points. If you address the wrong ones you will never win again," Boullier argues. "For me the trust is the most important thing you can build in the people, and today we know we aren't winning, we are frustrated, but clearly the good thing is you can feel the atmosphere in McLaren now - everybody is honest and everybody is doing their best. If there is something wrong we help each other, rather than blaming each other.

"Yes with the races there is obviously some emotion sometimes, but these are just normal pure racing emotions. It is frustrating not only for the drivers; this is something they understand as well. Ron [Dennis] and myself are as frustrated as they are - maybe even more, because we have the burden of this responsibility.

"I am a racer and Ron is a racer as well, so we are maybe more frustrated because we are the people facing everybody in the company - who are also frustrated by not winning. But again, honesty is the policy for me. We have to be the best, we know where we have to go, and McLaren knows how to do it, but you cannot build everything in one day."

Managing this scenario must be no easy task, given that Alonso and Button are in their mid-thirties and do not have time on their side to permit McLaren-Honda's 'building-up' process to run off schedule.

Will these two stand on the podium together (on merit) again? © LAT

But, again, the key is to be open about the situation in order to properly manage expectations. That way there is a better chance of either driver choosing to extend their tenure should more time be needed, rather than walking away when their current contracts expire.

"We cannot provide the timescale," confirms Boullier. "You cannot say in racing, 'In three years we will be world champions.' The guy who says this will be wrong. You can say, 'We will be world champion between three and five years.' To this, I agree. But you can't say we will be world champions in 2017.

"Sure they [the drivers] have the concern, but the key is to be as transparent as possible and then at least they know where we are, they know how much we progress and I think they can see progress. So far we are not too much into the concern of missing the window

"The thing is, it's a cycle. Formula 1 teams are like big supertankers. You start to steer and nothing happens, then little by little they start to turn and turn faster and faster. When I joined the big McLaren mammoth nothing was moving and now it is reacting. Now we are moving faster along the [progress] slope. This is good."

But McLaren-Honda cannot remain in rebuilding mode forever. Whether it's next year, the year after, or even 2019, eventually the team will have to deliver on its promise.

Otherwise it will no longer be seen as one of Formula 1's technological powerhouse teams, instead cast as a former giant resting on the faded laurels of a glorious past. If it comes to that then McLaren really will have wasted the talents of two of the best drivers of their generation.