MELBOURNE, Australia -- McLaren's executive director Zak Brown is not expecting a big step in performance form engine partner Honda and says the car's relatively strong showing during Friday practice in Australia is unlikely to be representative of its true pace this weekend.
Fernando Alonso finished the second practice session 12th fastest after the team completed a normal Friday programme without major issue, but speaking after the second session, Brown played down expectations.
"Yeah today was alright," he said. "Reliability was good, speed was not where we want to be but better. I think some others had some issues.
"So I don't know if today is representative of where we'll be tomorrow and qualifying. I hope so because P12 would be a little bit better than anticipated but it was only free practice, day one, you don't know who's turned up what, who's on what fuel loads but today was a good day."
During testing, McLaren struggled with a vibration issue on its Honda power unit that consistently triggered a car-stopping electrical fault. Brown said some progress had been made in rectifying the problem, but did not want to speculate as to whether it had been fully solved.
"They've been improved. I'm not sure, because at the end of the day we need to get more running in, I think it's early to say things have been solved, because we haven't done a grand prix distance but certainly today was good.
"We got some good laps in, more laps than we had done in any one day. Drivers like the car, Fernando and Stoffel have both said that the car feels very good. It looks good. So now we need to get further up the grid." But any hope of a major upgrade to bring Honda back on the level of its rival engine manufacturers may be misplaced, as Brown said it would be a case of making small steps rather than waiting for one single improvement.
"Yeah I think it is just that. Race-by-race we can get a little bit more power, a little bit more speed, not compromise reliability, then just every race if we can improve upon, I don't think they'll be a step change in any one grand prix, it'll just be gradual progression as the game plan.
"We've got various upgrades throughout the year but nothing substantial where we'll come out with a grand prix that is significantly different to what we have."