McLaren racing director Eric Boullier admits his team's lack of on-track success is starting to damage its brand and its ability to attract new sponsors.
McLaren's new partnership with Honda has not gone to plan this year, with the team notching up twice as many retirements as it has points from the opening eight rounds. McLaren is starting from 17th and 18th at its home race this weekend and pressure is mounting on both the team and engine-supplier Honda to start scoring better results.
"The damage is easy to understand," Boullier said. "You establish a brand by your success and your repeated success, McLaren has a number of wins and championships and has clearly established its brand as one of excellence. Commercially it does hurt because a lot of companies are interested in joining us, but some people within those organisations will question the lack of results. I don't think we can wait for very long anymore [to start getting results]."
However, when Honda boss Yasuhisa Arai was asked about the security of his position in the engine programme, he showed less urgency and indicated his company is pursuing more of a long-term strategy.
"I want to lead our programme by myself. It is a long-term project for Honda, so we need and we must step up every race and every year. It is a long-term project."
On top of potential sponsorship revenue, McLaren also stands to lose out on prize money if it finishes in its current position in the championship. Boullier said the pressure was starting to mount on both the team and Honda, but that the discussions between the two would remain private.
"I keep telling Mr Arai every day that we need to be successful as soon as possible," Boullier added. "Like any partnership in the world we are not going to tell you what we are telling each other behind the scenes. We have to face the world together as one team, but the pain is real, there is nothing we can hide, you are asking the right questions and everything you ask has been already raised 100 times.
"We put pressure on Honda as they put pressure on us, but maybe us more than them so far because we need to have more performance. With the package of the car and engine today, more than 50% - much more - will come from the power unit. Everybody knows this, they know this, we know this, so this where we put pressure if we are going to catch up.
"It's true there is a timing issue because Honda is in Formula One, but it's main business is selling cars and we are in Formula One to win races. So we have to make sure the timing of both projects are aligned, but we have already discussed this many times."