Jenson Button has conceded McLaren will be unable to score a podium this season as the team face up to what is being described as ‘one of the gravest crises’ in their history.
Without a victory since 2012, McLaren have only scored points in a single race this year after reuniting with Honda. The partnership slumped to a new low in this weekend’s Canadian GP when both of their cars were forced to retire due to engine malfunctions and Fernando Alonso’s frustration boiled over in the cockpit of his malfunctioning MP4-30 car as he complained the team “looked amateur”.
Speaking in the midst of McLaren’s calamitous start to winter testing, an optimistic Button told reporters that although McLaren wouldn’t “have a race-winning car at the first race, we might have one at the last race".
However, in the wake of the team’s Montreal nadir, the former world champion has conceded the team are now unlikely to register a top-three result this year.
“We won’t get a podium this year but we have to do the work, or you don’t deserve a podium,” Button told The Daily Telegraph.
While the McLaren-Honda alliance was expected to struggle during their first season together, the scale and array of their calamites has shocked paddock observers. Alonso’s three successive race retirements due to mechanical failures are more than he endured during the entirety of his five years at Ferrari.
‘Quite how Honda - with such facilities and focus, albeit in much less time - have created an engine with poor power, reliability and fuel consumption is very surprising,’ wrote Martin Brundle in his latest column for Sky Sports. ‘Normally one of those aspects would be positive. Quite what they are going to do, I just don't know. They are painted in a corner by the regulations with regard to development and testing, but more worryingly do they know what to do? I expected to see more improvement by now.’
It’s understood that McLaren intend to redeploy some of its formidable IT arsenal to aid Honda and, for the time being at least, the team are staying united with McLaren determined not to point the finger at their struggling Honda partners.
“We don’t want to be like Renault and Red Bull – s***-fighting in the media,” Eric Boullier, the McLaren boss told reporters.
Button, too, continues to insist that McLaren were right to ditch Mercedes power for a return to Honda.
“We are a long way behind in terms of development but if you don't take a stab with a new project like this, you are never going to fight the top guys," he told Sky F1 on Sunday night. "There is no way someone else with a Mercedes engine can win the world championship. Ferrari possibly can and so can we. So we had to see."
But the onus is now on Honda to provide some glimmers of encouragement before Alonso’s frustration boils over again.
“If it is still like this next year, Fernando maybe will go mad,” Boullier told the Telegraph. “Everyone is aware of the situation. We expect Honda to bring now some very fast solutions. Everyone knows where we are and what has to happen."