Boullier: Amazing team effort to recover from Alonso accident

McLaren have made steady progress this season despite a frightening start to their season when Fernando Alonso survived a death defying crash during the Australian Grand Prix, from which the team dug deep to recover.

For team principal Eric Boullier the manner in which the team bounced back after the horrific incident is what has impressed him the most so far this season.

Speaking during the mid-season recess, Boullier recalled, "The most amazing performance for the team was recovering from Fernando's horrific crash in Australia."

"It was a challenge to have to rebuild a brand new car and at the same time turn up in Bahrain and bring a rookie in [Stoffel Vandoorne] who did a brilliant job."

On the performance front the team still lags behind the pace setters, but admittedly has made big strides in reducing the gap.

Boullier acknowledged, "We are pleased if I may say this to obviously catch up on the big teams, out develop the big teams."

"That means the momentum behind is working, that means what we are doing is working, is delivering. We just want to do the best job we can until the end of the season while we are preparing for 2017 as well."

The Woking outfit count on the services of two of the most experienced drivers on the grid, with three world titles between them, and their contribution to the cause hailed by the McLaren team chief.

"Fernando Alonso had a brilliant race in Monaco where he finished 5th," said Boullier. "In Austria we had a very good qualifying session, with Jenson starting third on the grid."

"Finishing the race in sixth place was obviously a great result on a track where the lay-out was not suited to our car performance."

Another plus according to the Frenchman is the synergy between the team at the factory and the racing operation, "A great performance from the team is obviously having nearly a 95% correlation level between what we can simulate, produce, manufacture, deliver at the track and race which is amazing."

Meanwhile McLaren are enduring the longest win-less streak in their illustrious history, their last victory scored by Jenson Button at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Since their reunification with Honda, which in a previous era produced four F1 constructor's world titles, has yet to bear fruit - a podium still eluding McLaren-Honda after 31 races back together.