McLaren say their decision to ditch Honda and switch to Renault engines is paying dividends already as the former champions prepare for a new Formula One season after a three-year nightmare.
Executive director Zak Brown told Reuters on Thursday that morale had soared and sponsors were once again showing an interest.
"The change has been a very big motivational boost to staff, drivers, existing partners, future partners," he said at the Autosport International show.
"We've signed a few (sponsors) that we're going to start announcing in January.
"Last year was unsellable, so it's made a significant difference already. Now we need to deliver."
McLaren are the second most successful team in the sport after Ferrari, in terms of races won, but those glory days are becoming a distant memory.
The outfit have not won a race since 2012 and last took a driver's championship with a young Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Hamilton is now 33 and a four times champion, the last three of them with Mercedes.
McLaren ended 2017 ninth of 10 teams, their relationship with Honda pushed beyond breaking point and double world champion Fernando Alonso and Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne increasingly frustrated.
It should not be hard to improve on that with an engine that won three races in the back of a Red Bull.
"We're very eager to get to Australia," said Brown, referring to the March 25 season-opener.
"We've obviously had a significant power deficit that we think Renault will fix for us and that should get us back towards the front of the field. What slot I don't know, but it will be towards the front.
"We had a really good chassis last year. We know the majority of what we put on the chassis over the year correlated and worked," added the American. "The improvement that you saw over the year, the most significant part of that was our chassis development."
Brown hoped McLaren might finally end their win drought, and were aiming for that to be a possibility, but was under no illusions about the task ahead.
The top three teams -- champions Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull -- took all but one podium last year.
"We think we can be on the podium, but it's tough," he said.
Share
