Eric Boullier has outlined his initial expectations for the McLaren-Renault partnership, expressing his confidence that the team will score regular podium finishes.
One of the worst kept secrets in Formula 1 was finally revealed in Singapore as McLaren confirmed their split from struggling engine suppliers Honda.
The team are hopeful a switch to Renault power will propel them up the grid, having been hampered by Honda’s straight-line speed deficit for the last three years.
McLaren, one of the most prestigious outfits on the grid, have not finished on the podium since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, but Boullier is cautiously optimistic for 2018.
“We aim to be competitive and to be at least regularly on the podium if we can, and even better,” the Frenchman said.
“It’s a bit early. There’s still some regulation changes for next year with the introduction of Halo and this kind of stuff, and we’re just in September.
“Even if we started working early on next year’s car, we need to wait a little bit more.
“We also need to wait for testing and obviously Australia to understand where the other teams are in terms of performance.”
Boullier admits a “huge load of work” lies ahead, but insists the team have only lost two weeks of development amidst the uncertainty over their engine partners.
“Obviously it’s a challenge,” he told PlanetF1.com. “Now we have to work 24/7 I would say to try recover a couple of weeks where an ideal decision could’ve been taken.
“But, two weeks is recoverable, it won’t be any compromise next year.
“Of course, we don’t have the same experience as some of the customers, so we have to discover the package.
“I think we can trust our engineers to do a very good job, but this is going to be a huge load of work.
“I’m glad to see there’s a lot of energy going inside McLaren to try and recover as fast as possible.”
