McLaren sets Huge Targets for the Future

McLaren are currently targeting fellow Renault customer, Red Bull in the 2018 F1 championship. Lead driver Fernando Alonso has said that the onus is entirely on the team to catch Red Bull.

With both teams powered by Renault engines this season, the only separation in their cars’ performance should be their own car design prowess.

McLaren had difficult start to 2018 but Alonso managed to reach Q3 for the first time in Spain, qualifying eighth.

Alonso said: “It will depend on us. In the past, we needed to fix many things – we were missing race pace, deployment, aero and sometimes mechanical grip. Now, we know that on the power unit side we have the same engines as Red Bull. So it’s all on us.”

McLaren introduced a major and visible upgrade in Barcelona, namely a face-lifted nose. While the result was not what they had hoped for, there was significant progress. Enough to ensure that Alonso qualified 1.5 seconds off pole position. It is a considerable improvement from a 2.2 second average deficit in the opening four races.

To make matters even better, Alonso’s lap time was less than a second behind the Red Bull pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.

“We are massively motivated,” said Alonso. “We are going in the right direction, the new package is delivering what we expected. Let’s see what we can do.”

McLaren’s responded to their difficult start by parting ways with technical officer Tim Goss. Meanwhile, racing director Eric Boullier fended off media questions about his own position. He stressed on the fact that he had won with every team he had previously managed.

“We know what we have to do,” said Boullier. “There is a long way to go.

“There is no magic bullet in Formula 1, it is a step by step process. The plan is to bring developments for every race.”