McLaren are expecting another tough race this weekend, like that in Canada which saw another double retirement for Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.
Whilst the team are hoping reliability won’t be a factor in their result, the nature of the Red Bull Ring means it’s a circuit dependent on horsepower, something Honda still lacks when compared to its rivals.
“On paper, Austria won’t suit the characteristics of our car, but I’m looking forward to enjoying some good racing there and pushing to make more progress in every session,” noted Button.
Racing director Eric Boullier concurred, but is hopeful that both cars will at least see the finish, something they have only achieved once in seven races so far this season.
“Performance-wise, we expect the Austrian GP to be another tricky weekend, as it features heavy braking from high speeds and similar stop-start characteristics to Montreal,” he explained.
“However, before we can even think about performance, we need to work even harder from the very beginning of our race programmes on Wednesday, to ensure all our processes, hardware and software configurations, and our entire approach to the weekend, are flawless, so as to give ourselves the best possible opportunity to get both cars to the chequered flag.
“In addition, as I say, we may have to consider strategically implementing updates with the aim of improving reliability and performance.”
