Acting CEO promises there is a lot more to come from Honda
Monday 15 June 2015 15:35, UK
Jonathan Neale says McLaren won’t do a Red Bull and publicly criticise their engine partner after another double retirement in Canada.
Both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were forced out of the race in Montreal early, having already had to change Honda power unit components on Saturday.
Red Bull’s Christian Horner was scathing in his criticism of Renault earlier in the season, but Neale doesn’t believe that sort of mudslinging helps either party.
“We are committed to our engine partner. We are going to win or lose as a team and I am not about to do what other teams have done and start tearing apart the relationship between the chassis manufacturer and the engine manufacturer,” Neale, McLaren's chief operating officer, told Sky Sports F1.
“The fact is we have a job to do. I think everyone is asking questions about what we are doing at the moment. It is true, it is a matter of fact, that we have closed the gap this season to this point.
“But we are not going to sit here and say that anyone is happy with the current level of performance, you heard the lift and coast fuel saving that was going on, but the reality is we’ve just got to work through this - it isn’t going to get better by itself.”
Having been nearly five seconds off the pace in qualifying at the opening race in Australia, that deficit came down to just under two seconds in Montreal on Saturday, despite the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve being a power-dependent track.
“The primary goal for this season is to keep moving forward as we have done,” Neale added.
“We have closed a gap of around 2.5 seconds, we’ve got two seconds to go, that is a huge way, but we knew it was going to be a difficult weekend with a circuit like this. But watch us over the next few races, ask us in two or three races time, I think there is a lot to come.”
Having spent two engine development tokens before the Canadian GP, Honda have only seven left for the remainder of 2015, but Neale doesn’t think that will be an issue when it comes to improving the power unit.
“We have enough reliability issues to fix there that we can do without the tokens,” he said. “So I don’t think tokens is the issue at all, we just need time.”
Indeed, Neale is confident we will see big steps forward before F1 stops for its summer break in August.
“We look at the stuff that is coming through, we know we have invented stuff that is not yet at the circuit, we have to deliver it,” Neale revealed. “So for all the guys at Woking it is the usual message, head down, let’s push on with it and we’ll take the next race.”
