Eric Boullier felt that the McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team still managed to learn some things about its new MCL32 during the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya despite two engine changes on the opening two days.
Both Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne had disrupted days in the car on the Monday and Tuesday of the test, but despite reliability being much better on days three and four, Boullier feels the team are still behind where they wanted to be at this stage.
“It’s not great, not at all at the level of what we wanted to show,” said Boullier to Motorsport.com. “We didn’t run much, we didn’t run enough, and we don’t necessarily perform when we do run.
“But we still covered a few miles, we started working around the car and understanding how it works.”
Boullier knows the team will find it near on impossible to make up the time that was lost, and that during their second test next week it will be important to focus on the areas where they can make the most gain ahead of the new season.
“There is no solution to make up the time we lost,” added Boullier. “Now, we need to get to the point and reprioritise the list of what we need to know.
“Then, unfortunately, some Fridays early in the season will be used as test sessions for what we should have done here. Nothing can be made up, you can’t make up time. When time’s lost, it’s lost.
“We’d better make out priorities for what we want to test, what we want to validate for what will be done next week.”
