Boullier ‘surprised’ by Mexican pace

Eric Boullier was surprised by how competitive McLaren’s upgrades were during last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso ran McLaren’s new front wing at the United States Grand Prix and continued to use it in Mexico.

Alonso was so impressed with the upgrade that he hailed McLaren’s MCL32 as the “best car out there” while setting the fifth best time in Q1.

And he wasn’t the only one happy with the updates.

“Let’s say it is a little bit better than we were expecting,” racing director Boullier told Motorsport.com.

“It was a surprise. We were not expecting to be that competitive.

“But if you put everything relative apart, the new full package that we introduced on Fernando’s car last weekend looks like it delivers a little more than expected – which is good news.

“Hopefully Stoffel [Vandoorne] will have it in Brazil as well.

“It is good as a reference as well, because it is part of next year’s car, and it is good to know where we are and what we can do.”