The McLaren-Honda team experienced a second day of mixed fortunes on track during Tuesday’s testing when they lost a second engine in two days.
It was Stoffel Vandoorne’s first official day with the team, however after taking to the Barcelona Circuit shortly after 09:00 to commence his scheduled programme of installation laps, systems checks and set-up changes, he was only able to manage a total of just 29 laps before losing power from the Honda engine, the same thing that happened to Fernando Alonso on Monday .
To make the best use of time, the team elected to change the power unit in order to get the car back on track as soon as possible, enabling Honda to begin full investigations into the cause of the problem.
The team once again worked quickly and efficiently to get the MCL32 back up and running, and Stoffel was able to return to the track and continue the day’s run plan. He ended the day having completed 37 laps.
“It wasn’t the best day of running for us, but I’m pleased that despite the issue we still managed to get some laps on the board – I was very happy to get behind the wheel after four months without driving,” Stoffel said. “It’s important with a new car and a new design that you can step into the cockpit for the first time and feel confident to push, and I immediately felt comfortable in the car, so that was definitely a positive for me.”
“The initial feelings this morning were quite good, then unfortunately we had a loss of power, and we’re still investigating what the issues were. The first two days have been a bit difficult, but the team has done a great job to get the car up and running again so we could get back out on track.”
“There are still more days of testing this week and every lap in the car is valuable; it’s my first season in F1, so during every lap I try to make the most of it. Hopefully tomorrow and Thursday Fernando and I will have a couple of better days.”
