Eric Boullier has targeted a reliability improvement ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, though he admits McLaren could be in for another frustrating weekend in Spielberg.
McLaren suffered a double retirement in Canada, a race which saw it substantially down on power and having to fuel save from the early stages. Fernando Alonso moved onto his fourth engine while Jenson Button's car was fitted with its fifth MGU-H and turbo, meaning the 2009 world champion received a penalty for exceeding the four-component limit for the season on both.
"We can't deny that retiring both cars in Montreal was a bitter blow, but, undeterred, we quickly shifted our attention to Austria," McLaren's racing director said. "What's important to remember is that, despite the disappointment of the last race, we're always learning and improving, so we mustn't be too disheartened, and instead we must keep our focus firmly on the road ahead.
"Reliability has been a key issue during our development push, particularly on Fernando's car. It's a crucial element of a race weekend that we need to improve in order to continue making progress. We're getting there, but, like some other teams, we're now getting to the stage of the season where faults and failures could result in penalties. But those are the rules, and they're the same for everyone."
Austria is another power circuit, punctuated by long straights which should expose McLaren-Honda's deficiencies once again. Even though Honda has promised a power boost Boullier is braced for another difficult weekend.
"Performance-wise, we expect the Austrian Grand Prix to be another tricky weekend, as it features heavy braking from high speeds and similar stop-start characteristics to Montreal.
"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."