McLaren boss Eric Boullier admits that McLaren’s main focus in the Singapore race will be on outscoring Toro Rosso, the team’s rival for sixth place in the World Championship.
Sixth would represent respectable progress for McLaren since last year, as well as having obvious financial implications.
McLaren’s improving form and some bad weekends for Toro Rosso allowed the Woking team to move ahead after Spa, with an advantage of 48 to 45 points. However in Singapore Toro Rosso has bounced back and earned sixth and seventh on the grid, while the McLarens will start ninth and 12th.
“Obviously our focus is on trying to beat Toro Rosso and keep increasing our lead on them in the championship,” said. “They are in front of us, we kind of guess they did a better job for this track layout. I think it’s just a one-off to be honest, but we will do our best tomorrow, and at least have a good start.”
Boullier is confident that McLaren can claw back some points.
“We may expect a bit of tension in the first two rows, and you never know. Maybe with a better strategy we can definitely beat one of them, because they can’t double pit their cars under safety car, for example. So there is plenty of opportunity to not lose points on them, and if possible to keep our lead.”
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