“The whole team is united and everyone is hugely motivated by the challenge ahead“

Bahrain International Circuit, Sunday April 19

FERNANDO ALONSO, MP4-30-03

“We weren’t quite fast enough to get into the top 10, but we finished the race and got a bit more valuable experience with the car, which had been our main objective.

“Everything worked fine on my side of the garage, but unfortunately Jenson couldn’t start the race. We need to look at many things before the Spanish Grand Prix, and we have three weeks in which to increase our performance and improve our reliability. There’s a lot of work ahead, but we’re optimistic.

“It’s clear that we’re all committed to this project and to doing all we can to bring about our eventual comeback. The whole team is united and everyone is hugely motivated by the challenge ahead. Hopefully, we can build on what we’ve achieved so far, and see further improvements over the next few races.”

JENSON BUTTON, MP4-30-01

“Obviously, that was a disappointing day to end a disappointing weekend.

“However, although I was unable to get the running I required, and was also unable to make the start of today’s race at all, it’s clear that our car is improving, and that’s good news for all of us.

“That’s a result of a lot of hard work. In particular, I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to the boys in the garage, who worked unbelievably hard all weekend for so little reward. Their commitment and team spirit are massively impressive, and I know we’ll get the rewards they deserve in the end.”

ERIC BOULLIER – Racing director, McLaren-Honda

“Fernando drove hard and well all afternoon, in difficult and frustrating circumstances, and almost scored our first world championship point of the season.

“In the end he finished 11th. Although that isn’t an achievement that’s likely to tempt us to start popping champagne corks, nonetheless, following our first appearance of the year in Q2 yesterday, it clearly demonstrates that things are going in the right developmental direction.

“Having said that, we’d love to have been able to put on a better show for our Bahraini colleagues and friends, whose Grand Prix has been as resounding a success as ever.

“As for Jenson, his wretched luck continued today. The team had worked prodigiously hard to try to ready his car for the race after his technical issues yesterday, but, sadly, during the fire-up we noticed data that indicated an unresolved issue originating from the electrical glitches that had struck during the practice sessions yesterday and the day before.

“We believed that there was a significant likelihood that the issue would recur in running, and would indeed eventually scupper Jenson’s race. We tried our best to fix it but, sadly, we weren’t able to find a remedy in time for the start.

“That’s disappointing for all of us, and particularly for Jenson, but that’s racing; these things happen, and we’ll live to fight another day.

“As we enter the European season, it seems a good time to take stock of our state of play generally. During the first four fly-away races of the year – Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain – we’ve steadily improved our car via a series of developments, the result of which has been a palpable and linear upward trend in performance. The next race, the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, is three weeks hence, which affords us time sufficient in which to prepare further upgrades. We’ll make no predictions as to where they’ll place us, pace-wise, relative to our chief current competitors, but we expect that upward trend in performance to remain linear and palpable.

“Clearly, we aren’t satisfied with our level of competitiveness – our team exists to win – but we’ve made gargantuan strides since the Australian Grand Prix and that’s been a result of a tremendous effort by a large number of people, all of whose passion and commitment I hereby take the opportunity to salute.

“I believe the way we’ve approached the task in hand has been characterised by honesty, humility and hard graft, and that’s how we’ll continue to approach it.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we still have a mountain to climb, but climb it we will; of that you may be 100 per cent certain.”

YASUHISA ARAI – Honda R&D senior managing officer – chief officer of motorsport

“Today, Fernando was so close to finishing in a points-paying position, which is another positive step forward for us.

“Day by day, I can truly see the progress being made, and I’m confident in the continuing work we’re doing. Of course, it was extremely unfortunate that Jenson’s car had electrical issues this weekend and he was unable to race, but we’re confident we can resolve them.

“Now that the first four races of the season are complete, we have a short break to further improve. We’ll be preparing fiercely for the first European race, in Spain. And in particular we’ll be concentrating on competitiveness and reliability.”

“We’ve had quite a few issues this weekend, but the important thing is that we’re improving”

Bahrain International Circuit, Saturday April 18

FERNANDO ALONSO, MP4-30-03

“This weekend has been a nice surprise so far – and the car felt better again today.

“We’ve made a step forward, performance-wise; everything appears to be going in the right direction.

“Of course, we’ll never be happy that our qualifying effort ran out in Q2, but it’s a step forward, and the whole team will and should enjoy this result because they’ve been working so hard to achieve it.

“Tomorrow will be about finishing the race and getting both cars to the flag. We’ve had some problems with reliability this weekend, with Jenson’s car, so we need to keep improving in that area.

“We’ll need a bit of luck if we’re to score points tomorrow.”

JENSON BUTTON, MP4-30-01

“Well, FP3 was pretty good, especially after yesterday’s limited running.

“And then, in quali, I don’t really know what happened; it felt a bit similar to what occurred on Friday morning when everything shut down on the car. There was a loud bang, so I pulled over and got out.

“We’ve had quite a few issues this weekend, but the important thing is that we’re improving. Fernando got through to Q2, which is a good step for the team, and it’s just a pity I couldn’t be there as well.

“We knew it was going to be a hard start to the year, and it has been, but, even so, there are more positives than we thought there would be.

“Looking ahead to tomorrow, our race pace is likely to be not too bad. So hopefully we can sort out our reliability glitches ahead of tomorrow and have a decent race.”

ERIC BOULLIER – Racing director, McLaren-Honda

“Today, sadly, again, Jenson was afflicted by more than his fair share of reliability woes.

“As a result, he’ll start tomorrow’s race from the back of the grid, which is a great shame. Even so, he’ll be intending to push hard right from the start, and, reliability permitting, you can bet your bottom dollar that he’ll be aiming to force his way up the running order with composure and aplomb.

“Fernando’s P14 grid slot is nothing to write home about, but the fact that it represents our first Q2 appearance of the year is another sign of the sure, sound and steady progress we’ve been making. Formula 1 is an iterative business wherein results can be earned only by process-driven hard work – there’s no magic to it – and the improvements we’re seeing are the consequence of a huge amount of diligent toil by a large number of focused and talented people. Bravo, guys!

“Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

YASUHISA ARAI – Honda R&D senior managing officer – chief officer of motorsport

“Since the Chinese Grand Prix, it has only been a short while, but I believe we have been able to progress the ERS to adapt to this track as efficiently as possible. This was clearly supported by the result of Fernando’s progression to Q2.

“It’s unfortunate that we could not get both cars through. The issue on Jenson’s car is still under investigation, which we’ll try to do with the utmost urgency.”

“We don’t have any ‘magic bullets’ here, but we have some little tweaks”

Bahrain International Circuit, Friday April 17

JENSON BUTTON, MP4-30-01

“I guess it wasn’t a great day, but at least we got a lot of useful data on the car.

“The slightly frustrating thing, though, is that both cars were set up quite differently today, to get comparative aero info, and we weren’t really able to benefit from that on my car.

“Hopefully, we won’t have further issues; that way, I can get some decent running tomorrow so as to see what the car is doing.

“Whatever happens, though, it’s not going to be an easy weekend. We knew that already. And qualifying will undoubtedly be tricky again!”

FERNANDO ALONSO, MP4-30-03

“Today I had a very smooth day, and I was happy with the car in every condition, so tomorrow we just need to make sure we optimise the performance of the car and try to get a good result.

“Still, today is only Friday, and we saw in Shanghai that we had a decent performance on the Friday but then not so good on the Saturday – due to the fact other people were running more fuel than us on the Friday.

“Even so, we can see that we’re getting closer and closer to the mid-pack with every race. Definitely we’re moving in the right direction, we just need to do it that bit quicker!

“We don’t have any ‘magic bullets’ here, since we’re only four days after the last race, but we have some little tweaks that are putting some performance in the car.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same for Jenson today, so we’re missing some information, but we’ll try to recover tomorrow.”

ERIC BOULLIER – Racing director, McLaren-Honda

 “Today, to quote that hackneyed footballing proverb, was for McLaren-Honda a game of two halves.

“On the one hand, Fernando enjoyed a trouble-free morning followed by an equally unproblematic afternoon, running through his planned programme without mishap. On the other, Jenson was forced to endure a frustrating day, the result of not one but two major interruptions, compromising his ability to complete satisfactorily not only FP1 but also FP2. We apologise to him for that.

“Even so, we’ve gathered valuable data, which our engineers will study this evening and tonight.

“It’s too early to say where we are, pace-wise, but Fernando’s best FP2 lap-time was 1.5s off Nico’s [Rosberg] FP2 benchmark. That isn’t where we want to be; having said that, I believe it demonstrates that our progress, although not always linear, is nonetheless directionally positive overall.”

YASUHISA ARAI – Honda R&D senior managing officer – chief officer of motorsport

“Today, Fernando’s FP1 and FP2 running programmes were completed as planned, and we were more or less able to set the driveability control on the power unit.

“As for Jenson’s power unit issues, we were limited on running time owing to an electrical shutdown in FP1. We were able to put the car back on the track for FP2, but the control data that monitors the power unit status was unstable and we had to bring the car back to the garage several times, which was unfortunate.

“We’ll need to utilise tomorrow’s FP3 to set the control data for qualifying.”