Boullier, who served as McLaren’s racing director between 2014 and 2018, told Motor Sport in an exclusive interview that despite repeated warnings that Honda would struggle to match Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault at the dawn of F1’s hybrid era, Dennis believed the revival of the famous McLaren-Honda alliance could bring quick success.
The Frenchman recalled visiting Honda‘s Sakura facility in Japan soon after joining McLaren and being alarmed at the lack of progress.
“I remember arriving back in Woking from a visit to Honda‘s F1 headquarters in Japan some time in 2014 and asking Ron, ‘How is it possible that Honda will be ready to compete with Mercedes and the others as early as next year, when they’re clearly still so far behind?'” Boullier said.
“Ron replied, ‘Don’t worry.’ Later, I revisited the Honda plant and I called Ron from there. ‘Come here and see for yourself,’ I said to him. But, again, he assured me that it would all work out OK. But it couldn’t, and it didn’t. They just weren’t ready.”
Honda had only begun developing its hybrid turbo engine at the end of 2012, whereas Mercedes had started as early as 2009.
The result, said Boullier, was “miles behind” the competition when the partnership launched in 2015.
Alonso was very vocal about Honda’s problems during 2015
When the new McLaren-Honda finally hit the track at Jerez that winter, the results were disastrous. The MP4-30 was off the pace and kept breaking down – it immediately exposed how far behind Honda really was.
“When we went testing at Jerez in February 2015 and we were terrible – slow and unreliable – Ron called me and said, ‘You were right and I was wrong. This is probably the first time I’ve ever apologised to a Frenchman.'”
The Frenchman said that while both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were “world champion drivers,” the underperformance created a toxic environment.
Button, he explained, largely kept his frustration behind closed doors, but Alonso’s anger spilled into the public eye with infamous radio messages like his “GP2 engine” jibe at Suzuka in 2015.
Boullier also cited boardroom strife at McLaren during the Honda years as another major obstacle.
McLaren and Honda MkII was not a winning partnership
Grand Prix Photo
Dennis was in open conflict with co-owner Mansour Ojjeh, while the Bahraini investors sided against him.
“It was a stressful time,” Boullier admitted. “On top of that, our engineers didn’t understand or therefore manage well the consequences of F1 going to the hybrid era. I tried my best but by the middle of 2018 it was over, and I announced my resignation.”
Despite the painful memories, Boullier said he is pleased to see McLaren thriving again under Zak Brown and Andrea Stella – two people he helped bring into the fold during his tenure.
“It was me who introduced Zak to Mansour and Sheikh Mohammed [bin Essa Al Khalifa], our two main board members, and it was me who hired Andrea Stella from Ferrari,” Boullier said. “So I’m glad that Zak and Andrea are both doing so well now.”