McLaren-Honda Indy project a morale boost - Brown

Both McLaren and Honda need the positive boost from a competitive partnership in Indianapolis to show how committed they are to each other, according to McLaren executive director Zak Brown.

The Formula 1 partnership has been a struggle so far, with Honda failing to deliver a competitive power unit this season, in what is the third year since it returned to the sport. In IndyCar, however, Honda is enjoying a much more successful time and Fernando Alonso will run in this year's Indy 500 in a McLaren-Andretti Honda.

With spirits low among the F1 members, Brown says the two partners needed a positive development such as Indy in order to re-energize the team.

"It was very important," Brown said. "Obviously we're having a very challenging time on track which leads to a lot of questions about the partnership. The partnership has never been stronger and we felt this was a good way to demonstrate that McLaren-Honda and Alonso are one group, committed to each other, committed to winning and it's great that Honda has such a competitive platform in IndyCar.

"So I think it helps show that we're united. We are of course frustrated, as is Honda, with how things are going. It's not going to be a quick fix, I don't think we can expect much progress in Spain, Monaco etcetera until the middle of the year. And it was important that we told the world that we are committed to each other because we were getting a lot of questions about that."

Before the 500, Alonso has his home race to look forward to this weekend in Spain but is setting his targets low, aiming for a reliable weekend after failing to start the last race in Russia.

"After a run of difficult races for us, I'm not sure what we can expect from this weekend," Alonso said. "We're expecting some various new parts – which we bring to every race – but we can't really focus too much on performance until we have solved our reliability issues. That's always our focus.

"I know the team is working extremely hard to get to the bottom of our recent problems, and I am hopeful we can have a smooth race and a weekend with very few issues. For me, qualifying has been an exciting session in the past few races and I hope we can repeat that in Barcelona, but the most important thing will be to maximize whatever grid slot we achieve on Saturday, on race day."