McLaren Honda woes continue at Abu Dhabi
McLaren endured a very difficult test at Abu Dhabi, one that was set to see the glorious public debut of the first Honda powered Formula One car in nearly ten years.
While it was a historic test for both McLaren and Honda, including the first proper run for the interim MP4-29H/1X1, the team failed to live up to expectations as it failed to complete its planned system checks due to electrical problems.
On Tuesday, the team's interim car, specifically developed to test Honda’s new V6 turbo engine hit an electronics issue that meant the car spent the morning in the garage, but it broke cover soon after lunch.
Test and development driver Stoffel Vandoorne completed 4 exploratory installation runs throughout the afternoon but was halted on a couple of occasions by a fuel/data exchange issue – the second of which left him stranded on the circuit, causing a red flag.
On the second day of the test, despite successfully firing up before the track opened at 9am, McLaren Honda's morning programme was once again scuppered by a hard-to-find electrical issue, which halted progress while we traced the cause.
In the afternoon, the team got the MP4-29H/1X1 on the track, but already on the first lap of a scheduled four-lap run, the car shut down. The team was unable to rectify the issue, and, with limited track time remaining, opted to conclude the programme. We will thoroughly investigate the issue back at the McLaren Technology Centre.
In total, rather than its planned 10 four lap runs, the team completed 5 laps. Nobody in the team however appears to be publicly disappointed, with Boullier quick to compare with the problems that all teams faced in winter testing in February and March this year.
“Although this looked like another difficult day, this is just part of the learning experience we expected when we took on the interim car programme", McLaren's sporting director Eric Boullier commented.
"It’s useful to discover these issues pre-Christmas, as it allows us to deepen our understanding of the complex integration between power-unit, ancillaries and the car. And, to be honest, I’d rather be ironing out these problems here in Abu Dhabi, than discovering them in Jerez, next February.
“It’s definitely been a positive for both McLaren and Honda to conduct this test – there have been some troublesome issues, but we’ve made progress. We’ve also made an excellent start to the relationship – communication and interaction have been great, and you can really feel the positivity and sense of purpose in the garage.
Honda's chief officer of motorsport, Yasuhisa Arai, meanwhile said it was a 'tricky day': “In short, this was a tricky day. We encountered system start-up and data communication issues that prevented us from running as we’d planned.
“However, actually conducting testing at the track enabled us to understand the complexity of the system at a deeper level. We now know what is necessary to further develop the system, and we’ll work together with McLaren to be ready for the next test – at Jerez in February.”
