McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has stressed that the problems the team have encountered in the past fortnight’s Formula 1 pre-season testing are no more than part of the normal testing process.
Fernando Alonso had his running cut short once again on Wednesday morning after stopping out on track due to an oil leak.
This comes on the back of two power shutdowns for team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne on Tuesday, and wheel nut and exhaust clip issues in the first week of testing.
These problems have impacted the team’s running time and meant they were unable to capitalise on Tuesday’s better conditions to make up their mileage after the first test’s weather-related disruptions.
“This is not engine related,” Boullier said of Alonso’s Wednesday stoppage.
“This is a small oil leak we had to the car which unfortunately meant the engine died, so we have to change the engine now.
“They want to obviously inspect the engine before putting some more miles on it.
“The car breaking down, yes, it’s testing, so we have some little issues which we have to fix, but it’s just testing. It’s part of the process. We are on top of this.’
Bouiller argues that some issues are to be expected at the beginning of a relationship with a new engine supplier, and testing is the right place to iron out any problems. While acknowledging the disruption he emphasises McLaren’s adaptability in such situations.
“It’s a new partnership with Renault, completely new packaging for the car as well. This is testing. Give us time and it’s fine.
“We had eight days of testing, obviously a couple of them under snow conditions.
“We are trying to make a plan and every time we lose track time we have to revise the plan and make some other priorities so that something we will not test.
“We have to make sure we do the most of the priorities and that should be OK, that should be enough.”
