McLaren racing director Eric Boullier was talking up the hopes of the British team, after a mostly successful Friday with the upgraded Honda engine in Austria.
Fernando Alonso would finish ninth and eighth in the two practice sessions at Spielberg as team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne led the midfield in seventh in the morning before slipping down to 12th in the afternoon albeit only a tenth slower than the Spaniard.
Boullier would indicate there was still plenty to come from both the car and the new specification engine over the weekend as McLaren fully optimise their potential.
“It’s been a pretty productive first day here in Austria,” the Frenchman claimed. “Honda has introduced its Spec 3 power unit upgrade for both cars, and it seems like a fairly useful step in performance.
“Taking the lap-times at face value today, we looked reasonably competitive, despite neither Fernando nor Stoffel really feeling that their MCL32s were dialled in properly.
“There’s still a fair amount of work for us to do this evening if we’re to maximise the set-up ahead of qualifying tomorrow, but I feel encouraged that we’re on the front foot and carrying good momentum after the first day of running.”
Always looking to out-perform what the car is really capable of, Alonso remained somewhat passive in his evaluation of the day and instead was looking at the potential opportunities that could arise over the weekend.
“We gathered useful information, so now we try to analyse everything we gathered and let’s see what we can do tomorrow,” he said.
“Lap times are very close, there are seven or eight drivers inside two or three-tenths of a second, so tomorrow we’ll see which end of those seven or eight drivers we are.
“There were a few drops between FP1 and FP2, now it looks like rain is on the way, there’s more rain expected for Saturday and Sunday, so let’s see if the rain comes if we can make the most out of it,” the double world champion added.
“When you’re not fighting for the title, every variable may become an opportunity, you can take risks, it can go well it can go wrong, but normally it goes well.”
The action around the technical layout of the Red Bull Ring on Friday was noticeable for the volume of cars going through run-off areas and the gravels traps that dot the 10-corner layout.
The Spaniard too was caught out, sliding off at the downhill Turn 6, however, he expects that to become less regular on Saturday as drivers learn the boundaries.
“Conditions weren’t easy but that’s normally the case on Fridays,” Fernando said.
“In Baku, we also saw a large number of offs on the first day of practice, so we looked set for a bloodbath on Sunday but then things calmed down a bit.
“We were all trying to find the limits today, hence the offs, and tomorrow everything will run a lot smoother for everybody.”
