Boullier says McLaren are targeting "further up the grid"

Eric Boullier says the Bahrain Grand Prix is an “exciting event” as the team try to keep up their good start to 2018.

McLaren find themselves in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship after fifth and ninth place finishes for Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne respectively in Australia.

The Woking-based team are now in pole position for what is expected to be a hotly-contested battle to be the ‘best of the rest’, behind the top three teams of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.

McLaren look to be fighting Renault, who also scored points with both cars in Melbourne and Haas, who were set for a very strong finish, until loose wheels after pit stops ended both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen’s races.

Boullier said: “The back-to-back races of Bahrain and China pose very different challenges and given that most of our personnel don’t travel back to the UK between them, both logistics and car development are two tricky issues that everyone needs to get on top of.”

The McLaren boss also spoke about potential upgrades, as they look to break away from the midfield and get back to where many believe they belong, at the front of the grid.

He said: “Speaking of car development, we’re working hard to bring updates to the next two Grands Prix, which we hope will help our boys continue to put up a good fight.

“As we saw in Melbourne, our competition is tough. Our principal targets are further up the grid ahead of us, so we know there’s work to do and out focus in on the development race as well as the race on track.”