Eric Boullier: McLaren's British GP F1 performance not good enough
McLaren says just missing a British Grand Prix podium was still not good enough, as it faces up to the reality of its Formula 1 performance deficit
Jenson Button finished just 0.8 seconds adrift of third-placed Daniel Ricciardo at Silverstone, and would likely have grabbed the final podium spot if the race was one lap longer because his Red Bull rival was struggling with tyre wear.
But despite McLaren taking its biggest points haul since the season-opening Australian GP, racing director Eric Boullier reckoned his outfit could have done better with a more aggressive strategy after running second in the early stages.
"It is not good enough," he told AUTOSPORT. "I am pretty sure that we could have maybe done a better job with a more aggressive strategy.
"But, at the same time, you cannot blame your people when you have done your job well in tricky conditions on Saturday and you are in a good place on the grid. Then you obviously want to be conservative to try to score points.
"With modern F1, obviously having a lot of fuel in the car plus tyres to manage, you have to be more statistically orientated than just going racing - which may be frustrating sometimes.
"But also we need to be realistic. Our car is on paper good maybe for seventh or eighth, not fourth and sixth. So it is still a better result than we should get in normal conditions."
Although a new aerodynamic package that was introduced at the Austrian GP produced a step forward for McLaren, Boullier is under no illusions about just how long it will take the team to get back to the front.
"You cannot recover one second [deficit] in aerodynamics in three months," he said. "It is impossible.
"With the restructure we have now in the windtunnel, it is something you need to build - and we have a much deeper job to do as well.
"There are a few things to restructure and change at McLaren to get back to the top, but when we are back at the top we will be there for a long time."
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