McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has said “there is still a lot of work to do” despite the reliability and performance progress both McLaren and Honda have made over the winter break.
During the first pre-season test in Barcelona, McLaren enjoyed a good start achieving 257 laps in four days running, that is only 123 laps short of what McLaren managed in 12 days combined during last season’s pre-season tests. Despite the progress made McLaren only actually managed to run problem free for two and half days of the test due to a hydraulic leak on Wednesday that ended Button’s time in the car and coolant leak limiting Alonso to just a handful of laps on Thursday.
McLaren may have suffered setbacks in the last two days of testing but according to various sources, they managed to run the car for two whole days of filming following the first test.
Eric Boullier spoke to Autosport about the progress Honda and McLaren have made
“They have definitely fixed the main issue we had last year, which was deployment.
“However, we are still not at the performance level of Mercedes and Ferrari, so there is still a lot of work to do.
“But after the problems of last year, the week was more about making sure we could run, with so much to check on the car, to get out of the car and to send back to the factory.
“From the end of last season in November through to the start of the test all we have been able to work on is simulation.
“That means you tend to deviate all the time from the truth, so now the truth is coming back into the system.
“That allows us to ensure the correlation is OK, and we know where we are and where we are going.
“[The second test] will be interesting because everyone will have to do race simulation and qualifying runs at some stage, so then we will start to pick things up.”
