Racing Director of the McLaren F1 Team, Eric Boullier has said that failures in testing are “inevitable” and that he’s pleased that said problems have reared their head before the start of the season.
McLaren have been focussing on learning about the new MCL33 in a somewhat trying two weeks at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Fernando Alonso suffered a wheel nut failure in the first session of the first test last Monday, and the second week has thrown challenges at the Woking team in greater volume.
Two electrical failures hampered Stoffel Vandoorne‘s day yesterday, whilst Alonso suffered an oil leak in today’s session. McLaren have completed just 355 laps over the course of six days, the lowest of any team – 303 laps behind distance leaders Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport.
“It’s a shame we lost track time today due to another time-consuming issue,” said Boullier.
“However, in many ways I’m glad these problems are occurring now – in testing – as this is exactly why we’re here.
“These are the days when we need to ensure all bases are covered and all processes analysed.”
Boullier noted that problems will arise early on in McLaren’s relationship with Renault Sport, after parting ways with former engine suppliers Honda late last year. The Frenchman was also keen to point out that the team have collected a “large volume of important data”.
“We’re working with a completely new package for 2018 and it’s inevitable that problems such as these will occur, but of course it’s frustrating that such issues are both so visible and so lengthy to rectify,” he added.
“We’ve already gathered a large volume of important data and each day we’re still making progress with our pre-season preparation, so we’ll keep pushing ahead until the end of the test.”