McLaren 'on top' of mechanical issues

McLaren sporting director Eric Boullier says the car's design is not to blame for their mechanical failures in testing. Once again McLaren's unreliability has been a theme of pre-season, with both Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso running into trouble in Barcelona.

The first two days of the second test at the Circuit de Catalunya has seen the McLaren grind to a halt four times.

Electrical issues stopped Vandoorne in his tracks on Tuesday, before an oil leak curtailed a promising start to day two for Alonso.

McLaren's woes over the past three years with Honda were well-documented, but their switch to Renault has not solved the reliability puzzle so far.

But Boullier says such bumps in the road are to be expected when dealing with a new supplier.

"We have some little issues which we have to fix, but it is just testing," said Boullier.

"It is part of the process. We are on top of this.

"It is a new partnership with Renault. New packaging, completely new packaging for the car as well. This is testing, give us time – it is fine."

It has been suggested that the design of the chassis on the MCL33 has contributed to overheating problems, but Boullier rejected that.

"I don't think it is related, no," he said. "Obviously we try to design the best car.

"With a new car concept you have to prove out on track if it works or not.

"We are trying to make the best out of our car to make sure the aerodynamic platform is delivering much more.

"We are now about to fine-tune, and [today's oil] leak we have is nothing related to that."

#F1Testing update: we suffered a power shutdown during Stoff’s last run, meaning we lost data. The team are investigating, but we’ll be back out as soon as we can. pic.twitter.com/OYQxEZ8OKm — McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 6, 2018

McLaren CEO Zak Brown was keen to stress that the team had been able to fix every problem they had overcome, and expressed confidence they would not impact on their season.

"I think it's just natural teething, learning things," Brown told Sky Sports. "All the stuff that we've had have been pretty minor which get worked out at testing.

"We know what the issues are, they are all easily fixed. Of course, you would like to do more laps but we don't think we have any problems so we are not concerned."