It has been reported over the past two weeks that the McLaren Honda team are not having the best of luck when it comes to the performance of their new 2017 contender as they continued to supper problems with the Honda power unit on each of the eight days of pre season testing.
While testing is used to iron out any gremlins that may be present prior to the opening race of the season, team boss Eric Boullier has claimed that the problems experienced were more than they anticipated and he doubts they will get to see the chequered flag in Melbourne next weekend.
Speaking to the Spanish press, Boullier explained that while they are hoping to finish the season opening Australian Grand Prix, he is completely unsure if it can happen….
"The truth is we're having more problems than we expected. We knew that we'd encounter some things, but truly not as many as we're seeing. We're always working to reduce the number of problems and be able to go faster."
The McLaren only managed to complete a total of 424 laps over the eight days on track and main driver Fernando Alonso has gone on record to say that the new Honda engine has no reliability and no power.
So how do they fix things?
"The only solution is to keep working hard, to get back to competing with the new concept, which has some issues,” Boullier added. “The problem is the timing. We should be fixing these in January, not in March. We've put in a lot over the last two years to fix things, to get back to being at the front. We've got to make a big engineering effort to get there. We need to keep working hard."
