McLaren targets 'weren't ambitious enough'

McLaren were not "ambitious" enough with their 2018 car design, which has left them chasing their fellow Renault-powered teams in terms of one-lap pace. Although Fernando Alonso has scored points in all three races this year, neither Alonso or Stoffel Vandoorne have made it into Q3.

While struggling with the Honda power unit over the last three years, McLaren spoke bullishly of having the best chassis in Formula 1, but taking on Renault power is yet to propel them into competition with Red Bull, a team they have publicly targeted.

A 'version 2' McLaren is expected to be seen at the Spanish Grand Prix after pre-season struggles put them behind in development, but racing director Eric Boullier has challenged the team to set their sights higher.

"The car has matched all the targets so maybe that means maybe the targets were not the right ones," Boullier said. "We need to revise, in terms of ambitions, what we need to achieve.

"Obviously we have the same engine as Renault and Red Bull and we are behind so there is no hiding that fact.

"We need to understand why we are slow in qualifying, why we are better in the race and why we are behind the other Renault teams, full stop.

"There was obviously some questions asked in Bahrain, there is still an ongoing process because we have to address it and we will address it and we are about to address it."

According to Boullier, Alonso and Vandoorne are content with how the McLaren drives - all that's missing is the top-line pace.

"The car is still very balanced," he said. "If you listen to the drivers they are happy with the balance of the car.

"Whatever you try and setup the car reacts accordingly so a bit more understeer, less understeer, more oversteer, one tenth better here, one tenth slower here so I think we have a good understanding of the car.

"I think the car has no nastiness, if you want, in terms of the design. We just need to make the car faster around the corner and in the straight line.

"Our top speed is not the best one because we are bottom in the ranking but it's not the only one.

"It's not as simple as this, you know. If it were a question of just driving the car it would be easy to fix so we have to address, I'm going to use the word fundamentally, all aspects of the car to make sure we are where we should be."