McLaren, who have won more championships than any team other than Ferrari, this year began a new partnership with Honda and have endured a nightmare on the track with just 17 points from 14 races.
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Jenson Button has admitted to “miscommunications” and a lack of early dialogue with McLaren that resulted in a delay over a decision on his Formula 1 future.
“There are going to be lots of changes within the team, with the power unit”.
Boullier feels there is now more of a feel-good factor for the team ahead of the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday.
“I’m happy that it was only broadcast in Suzuka because if you hear all the races, all the radio messages – from me or from Jenson or from whatever – you will be even more surprised”.
“I want to say thanks for all this fantastic time I had in this first 250”.
“This is a very unique sport, that we have a microphone in our helmet and it goes live on television”. “It’s not something you can do in-season, but it is something we can do over the winter – to improve the deployment, in terms of how long we’re able to deploy for”. “We talked about the difficulties we are facing right now and solutions for next year”.
Alonso added the “most important” aspect of the weekend in Japan had been a visit he made before the race to Honda’s research and development facility.
Double world champion Alonso vented his frustrations at another poor display by McLaren and their engine supplier Honda with a number of angry radio exchanges during the race.
“Obviously we have been all season very positive about the team and the auto”, he said.
“I saw the engine programme for next year”, he said.
The weekend had hardly begun before Fernando Alonso and returnee Roberto Merhi were hit with grid penalties.
In addition, two additional changes have been referred to the stewards for consideration as McLaren has since added a 10th turbocharger and MGU-H, both of which will incur five-place penalties.
Honda said there had also been “a minor reliability update on the turbo”. Fernando Alonso received the new engine for FP1, triggering a grid penalty for the component changes.
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Button will not be using the upgraded engine at this race as there is only one available.
