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McLaren has improved the quality of its Formula 1 development and become more agile with the process, according to racing director Eric Boullier.

The Woking-based outfit routinely brought new parts for its MP4-31 to races in 2016 as it looks to reassert itself as an F1 contender.

Encouragingly, the updates it brought worked as expected and generally improved performance.

When asked by Autosport if development is now a strength of McLaren's, Boullier said: "Yes, now it is.

"We are more agile, there is good correlation.

"We hit a very good correlation rate in 2016 and the more parts we bring, the more performance you get.

"We have closed the gap to most other teams."

Boullier admitted McLaren could have had a stronger second-half of the season, but dropped off because it elected to turn its attention to 2017 and the new technical regulations.

"We could have done better as we slipped away from the top teams after the summer, because we switched very early to 2017," he said.

McLaren took a decision in May 2014 to start from scratch with a car concept and then stick with it, developing it over time with a group now led by Peter Prodromou.

Previously, the team had a habit of trying to search for the magic bullet each year, which resulted in unpredictable form.

"Everybody agrees and understands this is the way to go," said Boullier.

"That is a decision we took when we said this what we have strategically do technically.

"We had no concept before, so we had to start from scratch, and develop from there.

"We changed the concept of the car, a new PU which was not mature enough, we changed a lot in the team as well, in terms of the way McLaren works.

"All this takes time. but now, I can feel it is clicking - we just have to be patient."