McLaren fears its poor performance in Malaysia will be repeated

The 6th and 9th places secured by Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen respectively, last Sunday in Sepang, for McLaren, are far from satisfying the British team.

Placed in perspective with the double Australian podium achieved fifteen days earlier, these places of honor demonstrate a step back in the performance of the MP4-29, a situation that could persist and which concerns sports director Eric Boullier: “I don’t think this will be just an exception, that’s the problem,” he confided to Autosport.

The Frenchman offers a realistic analysis of his team’s situation: « We said in Melbourne that we were happy with the result because we had been opportunistic. But of course, we also knew that others would quickly come back once they managed to fine-tune their car’s balance and make the necessary adjustments, especially on the electronic side. That’s exactly what happened. »

The track conditions in Sepang did not favor the gray and black single-seaters, as Boullier confirmed: “It’s a vicious circle when it’s hot. Our lack of downforce tends to make the car slide. The more the car slides, the hotter the tires get, and if you exceed the temperature limits, it causes trouble. That’s exactly what happened to us. It was very hot and we struggled with grip.”

After the race, Jenson Button made the same analysis as the Frenchman, explaining that the particular characteristics of the Sepang track had clearly masked the progress made by the team on the single-seaters.

However, Boullier is pleased to have seen both of his cars reach the finish line, which was not a given in the tricky weather conditions of Malaysia: « Curiously, there were not many reliability issues. It’s true that our strategy to be reliable was good in Melbourne, but here [in Malaysia] it didn’t pay off because most of the cars saw the checkered flag. We know in terms of performance that we need to massively and actively develop the car. »