McLaren and Honda have their "heads down" to solve issues - Brown

McLaren is doing everything it can to ignore rumours of a rift with Honda, as well as its weak showings on the circuit, to work hard on devising a solution to its many mechanical troubles alongside the Japanese manufacturer.

The team's boss Zak Brown echoes this intention, refusing to acknowledge any media mutterings while insisting that both parties can successfully bring McLaren back to the top of F1 once again.

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"I think the degree of issues that we had in Spain were definitely not what we anticipated," he admitted. "We knew, as Hasegawa-San (Honda's F1 boss) said, with the kind of redesign of the engine that they had taken some risks, and with risk comes risk, so testing wasn't pleasant.

"We're working very hard on it. I think if anyone thinks we are standing still they'd be incorrect in their thinking. We're in Sakura often, Eric (Boullier) has been there on a weekly basis."

Brown sensibly recognises that acknowledgement of the hurdles the Woking squad have before them will help as they look to regain competitiveness: "These things happen, it's a tough sport and the Mercedes and the Ferrari and the Renault have a huge headstart on Honda.

"They took some risk in that they redesigned the engine this year and didn't come out of the gate as strong as we can, but it is what it is and now we just need to work very hard to improve it. I think Renault obviously had some big issues a couple of years ago and they made some impressive gains during the season, so it can be done and in our instance it needs to be done."

A strong team spirit still flows through McLaren despite its struggles, and Brown added: "It's not difficult to keep everyone motivated. I've been pleasantly surprised - maybe surprised is the wrong word - very happy to see how the team has reacted.

"You go into the garage and you can't see a different temperament whether we're winning or have issues and I think that's because this is a world champion team. Keeping everyone together, that's been quite easy.

"Fernando and Stoffel are obviously frustrated that we are not more competitive, which is understandable and we share in that pain but we are not going to quit. We are where we are and now we just need to improve."

Mason Hawker