McLaren-Honda must dominate – Dennis

Ron Dennis admitted he wants the revived McLaren-Honda partnership to dominate Formula One like the team did during the record-breaking 1988 season.

McLaren-Honda broke a number of records during the 1988 season as eventual winner Ayrton Senna and team-mate Alain Prost won 15 of the 16 races in the season – a tally Mercedes equaled in 2014 albeit in a 19-race season.

“The 1988 car was very late and at the time testing was unlimited so when we arrived at Imola all the other teams had clearly demonstrated their competitiveness,” Dennis told Autosport.

“On the third timed lap of the car it was over a second faster than everybody who had been testing for days and by the end of the test we were two seconds faster.

“What we achieved then, and what our rivals Mercedes achieved this year, is exactly what our objective is for the future – which is domination.

“I remember at the beginning of the [2014] season I said we were here to win races.

“So you could argue that as we didn’t win a race and we’re using words such as ‘domination’ then we’re setting ourselves up for an almighty fall.

“But domination doesn’t come in a short period of time, it takes time.

“It is what we’re about because it is the only thing that really sets you aside from people who just win races.

“Winning races is challenging but domination is really challenging.”

Earlier Dennis described Honda’s Sakura headquarters as “extremely mind-blowing” and believes the Japanese constructor’s return to the sport almost guarantees McLaren success.

“The commitment and the attitude and the absolute focus and desire to raise the bar is all present in those facilities and also in the developing attitude of the Honda/McLaren engineers,” he said.

“I feel very confident that as we move forward into next season we have a realistic prospect of achieving our objectives.”