- McLaren
Rookie Magnussen not a hindrance - Boullier
Eric Boullier insists having rookie Kevin Magnussen at the team is not limiting the progress it is making from race to race with its development.
Much like McLaren, Magnussen has had rather contrasting fortunes in 2014, securing a memorable podium on his debut but then failing to finish higher than ninth in any of the following five races. McLaren has made no secret of the fact it needs an "aggressive development push" in order to fight for wins, with upgrades expected for Canada before a significant upgrade to follow in time for the Austria and Great Britain.
Magnussen's team-mate Jenson Button is the most experienced driver on the grid but Boullier insists there is no concern about the Dane's ability to provide helpful feedback over what could be a season-defining couple of races for McLaren.
"I don't think it's more challenging to have a rookie driver rather than a too experienced driver, let's say, because the kids now, like Kevin, can do let's say most of the job and get enough feedback to lead or at least answer some questions from the engineering team," Boullier said. "Obviously when you have somebody more experienced like Jenson you get more details and you can dig in more problems to find solutions."
Boullier thinks it is only natural for a rookie to take a while to fully adapt to the scale of the change when stepping up to F1 and thinks Magnussen has done a good job so far.
"I think Kevin is facing the rookie syndrome, which is that they all come from single-maker series and where they struggle most with is to understand is that the cars they have, the cars they are working for and trying to develop is giving them some kind of revert and if you don't have the best car you can't fight for the win, and this is where they most struggle.
"But the rest is fine to be honest, he is settling in well. He's very consistent; his feedback is good enough is good to drive his engineering group around him to make him go faster, so he's doing very well for a rookie."
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