McLaren’s team principal Eric Boullier had to face a relatively strong media in the French GP press conference where he almost had a verbal argument with one of the journalist.
The past week has been been hard on McLaren with multiple reports coming of an internal trouble. Former team principal Martin Whitmarsh also noted the case, but the team denied any such issue few days before the grand prix.
However, the issue was brought into light again with an added element that the McLaren team members were handed a free chocolate as a gift for their hard work – something which Boullier laughed off, but then things got out of control at one point.
FIA’s Matteo Bonciani had to step in to avoid any further discussions. Apart from the driver pairing questions, here’s full transcript of the Q&A asked to Boullier by different journalist on the similar topic, including the back and forth which nearly resulted in argument.
Q) Eric, will McLaren seek to identify and potentially discipline the individual member of staff who spoke out against the team today?
EB: “This is obviously an internal matter, so we need to discuss what we need to see internally, what’s going… why that individual is unhappy. When you have, obviously 800 people… we have a lot of support from the workforce and from the engineering.
“I think it’s just a matter of a couple of people who are grumpy. Actually, in some way it’s maybe good for us because we have a lot of feedback and good feedback.”
Q) Eric, do you accept any responsibility for the failings of this car. And will you resign?
EB: “That’s a good question. Obviously, we are all responsible for the car performance. No, I will not resign, to answer your question. I know you have written some articles. I’ve got my twentieth year now in racing, I’ve won races and championships with every team I’ve managed before, including Formula One, so this is some record that you cannot take away from me.
“So I think we’re on a journey. We are not where we want to be, we are not happy with where we are – but with the journey, with the new Renault engine partner, and obviously we have a good team of people, we just need to make sure we are finding the issues with the car and correct them.
“We know where the issues with the car are, and make sure… when you build a car, when you believe in a concept, you have to develop the concept and make sure you correct if for the next one.”
Q) Eric, all though you currently run about halfway up the grid in terms of your championship performance, a year ago you were right at the back, so there has been an improvement – however it’s still halfway to where you really need to be as McLaren, as a championship-winning team. Is it realistic to project some form of progress this year, or do you think fifth is roughly where you are? And what are the actual stated objectives and how realistic are they?
Eric Boullier: “Well, it’s true that this time last year we had no points at all, so obviously we are now in the fight for fourth with Renault and once again, we would prefer to be comfortably fourth, which was one of the targets we had assigned to ourselves.
“The car this year is obviously not working exactly like how we expect to be but we are still using this as an experimental experience, especially like this morning, for example, a lot of new parts on the car.
“We want to learn from this car and learn as well working with Renault – because it’s a different partner from last year who we worked with for some years. We have something new to learn; some of the technical options we have not explored yet.”
Q) Another question for Eric, going back to the media reports today. Is there a toxic atmosphere at McLaren? Are you untouchable and are you fighting to save your job?
EB: “No, I think at this level of responsibility we are all obviously working for the company, we are all making sure we take our responsibilities. There have been a couple of stories about some chocolate-gate, I think in the media today which was a bit funny to read – and again, it was good because actually we have tonnes of email from people saying ‘this is a joke’ – so maybe it’s a couple of people grumpy, which in any organisation you have some people who agree or disagree when there has been maybe miscommunication.
“I don’t know what is the problem of these people and I think we have invited them to come and see us to understand what their problems are, other than obviously talking through the back doors, y’know?”
Q) Eric, just another one of Freddo-gate, is it right that you’ve ordered loads of Freddos in for your team this week as a show of support and you hope that perhaps you could get some strength from this situation?
EB: “No, it’s not true! We are not working with some Freddos.”
Perhaps you should…
EB: “Well yes, it’s a lot of energy anyway, so thanks for considering this.”
Q) To Eric. Just to go back to the Freddo thing, will you be reviewing how you hand out Freddos at the factory? Will you stick with the Freddo rewards – or do they stop?
EB: “I think if you did a course in management we can organise this for you. And if you’re really desperate to test the Freddo chocolate, we can send a box to you, don’t worry.”
Thank you. Thank you for that offer. Could I just say…
EB: “That’s enough of it. You’re looking after something, we will give you any answers later but I think it’s enough.”
No, no, it’s not enough. Do you expect to still be in your job at Silverstone?
EB: “Yes. Of course. It’s a journey. It’s not a plug and play story. It’s a journey when you have to work too. You’re after me, apparently…”
But you’re being briefed against, by your own staff, by your management…
EB: “I think you are lying now.”
MB: Sorry (Eric Boullier) Jonathan, we do not want to have a one to one. I’m trying to give a word to everybody. Eric, if you need so say something else?
EB: “No, I am fine.”
I’m not lying.
Q) Eric, you’ve spoken about the journey quite a few times throughout this press conference, that you were taking McLaren on. Is it harder for your vision to be felt by the team with the management structure that’s got multiple chiefs, and are you still confident that you’re the right man to lead the team and make your vision felt?
EB: “Well, obviously when I joined McLaren they were obviously the people in place and obviously you have to build an organisation that you believe in and I think that during the Honda era it was not obviously planned to be where we were.
“Again, no points, a lot of reliability issues and we had to deal with this, so you have to manage the company a little bit differently when have brought few people in, coming from a World Champion team. You obviously don’t want to lose them.
“I think now with Renault as well, we can score points now, at least we try to be fighting for Q3, this is not where we want to be, but again it’s a journey. We still discover… for example in the last race one of the pipes broke during the race and this is something we have investigated and this was a new problem we had to face and this is part of the journey. Again, we are learning to work with Renault and our new partners.”
While Boullier continued to face the media barrage, the other team principals couldn’t help but only smile it off. However, Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul took a moment to defend Boullier and McLaren’s position by giving out a stern statement from himself.
“If I may just jump in, I was hesitating,” he started. “One thing I think about McLaren’s situation: I was talking about benchmarks and the fact that we have Red Bull as a benchmark is also working for engine manufacturers and I think something that has been badly missing for both Honda and McLaren in the past has been the lack of benchmarks.
“I think that they have a clear understanding of the issues, I think we need also to appreciate that the time needs to focus on those issues. I have absolutely no f**king clue about the chocolate bar that you’re talking about. I don’t want to comment on that, but I just wanted to make that point regarding benchmarks which is very important in a competitive environment.”