McLaren boosted by first points of 2015

Jenson Button's eighth place in Monaco was a small but significant landmark for McLaren, as it represented the first points for the team after its difficult start to the 2015 season.

Teammate Fernando Alonso was on his way to score too, but retired with a gearbox problem.

Boullier said it was a boost for the staff but conceded that there is a long way to go.

"It's just a reward for the hard work for the people of McLaren-Honda," Boullier told Motorsport.com. "It's good to get points on merit.

"Obvious Monaco was a track that suited us, so there's nothing to get excited about, but it's showing some progress.

"Obviously I would have loved to have had both cars in the points, which was possible, and that would be even better, so there's an investigation to understand what happened to Fernando.

"There are some positives out of the weekend, even if we are not where we want to be, it's always the same story. But one milestone done, which was to get the points."

Boullier admitted that reliability remains a concern.

"We are pushing hard, so that's why," he said.

The Frenchman believes that after Canada - where straightline speed is paramount – the latest updates will start to pay off.

"We keep pushing, we keep improving every race. There is now more visibility about the performance coming for the next races, so it's just encouraging.

"I think Canada will be a difficult one, but from Austria is should be better."