Boullier: There's still time to develop this car

Much was expected of McLaren's new Renault power era, team chiefs were bullish and confident that the team would once again find winning form or at least match Red Bull who are the benchmark for similarly powered teams.

But after weekends at two very different venues - Monaco and Montreal - it is clear that the car Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne have at their disposal is simply not up for the job on any type of circuit. Nowhere near as good as their target, namely Red Bull.

In Canada, they were easily the worst of the three Renault powered teams, while their updates in Montreal were hardly noticeable as they seemed to slip further down the pecking order, the wrong end of the midpack.

Boullier told the official F1 website, “I think it's worth developing it for a couple of reasons. The first one is to understand what's wrong and to not repeat any kind of platform mistakes in the future.”

“There's still time to develop this car, potentially curing the low-speed lack of grip which has a big impact on top performance. So those are two reasons why we should carry on.”

“We also need to make sure we don't compromise next year's development as well as understanding the car. That's the balance which we are working on.”

“We are flat out on trying to cure these car issues, and to make sure we understand it, and obviously we will start soon on next year.”

Amid the crisis of performance at Woking, Boullier continues to believe in his team, “We have 100 percent confidence in the group of people we have at McLaren. We can blame some issues on the car. Definitely, I think the car this year is not the car we were expecting to have.”

“It's just a matter of understanding why and making sure we have the right vision and leadership for the future to conduct and make sure we can design and manufacturer competitive cars. I believe in the people we have in place today. There is a great talented bunch at McLaren.”

After seven rounds, McLaren are fifth in the constructors' championship with 40 points, 16 shy of Renault and trailing Red Bull by 94 points.