McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has called upon his team to start thinking of itself as winners despite problems during initial testing with its new Honda engine.

The Woking outfit's boss Ron Dennis has said that he is looking for the constructor to dominate Formula 1 in the same way as they did during the late 1980s.

While Boullier has stopped short of predicting victories, he admitted that he does expect a more positive frame of mind within McLaren during 2015.

The Frenchman is quoted by Crash.net as saying: "I'll leave it to speculative people [to predict victory], but the only important thing, from my world, is to have [everyone] working here to have the right mindset. This means doing more than they can to believe we could win the first race.

"I think of McLaren-Honda as one team. That is very important and I think two world champions in the car is obviously a very strong asset - and the best [angle] for me if anyone is looking for a positive story.

"Having convinced Fernando [Alonso] to join us, to stop the last two years of contract at Ferrari, means a lot for me as it means he believes in what we are building and I think McLaren-Honda will be a winning partnership."

McLaren finished fifth in the 2014 constructors' championship and have failed to win a Grand Prix since Lewis Hamilton's 2012 victory at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.