McLaren racing director Eric Boullier is confident the team’s more productive and promising pre-season tests will give the team a “big boost” heading into the 2016 season opener in Australia on March 20th.
McLaren struggled during pre-season testing in 2015 after rekindling their once formidable engine partnership with Honda. The team managed just 380 laps over the entire 12 days of testing they had.
Fast forward to this year and their fortunes have changed, despite having four days fewer testing McLaren notched up 780 laps during which they showed greater reliability, an increase in straight-line speed and better handling.
This would have come has good news to all at McLaren, after finishing ninth in the 2015 constructors championship McLaren’s finances would have been hit hard meaning a consistent season in 2016 is imperative to their sustainability.
Speaking to Autosport about the differences between 2015 and 2016 Boullier said: “Last year we couldn’t do anything on the car. Checking nothing, actually.
“At least this year we went through a lot – job list, to-do lists, and check lists.
“In terms of systems and even the car itself, we pushed some limits on some new designs we had on the car.
“Some of them failed, some of them not, which is a normal process of testing, but I am happy with the results.
“At least now we have covered this mileage over the last eight days, so we are much more prepared and comfortable.
“We are also feeding back into the machine more data, so we know where to go and it’s going to be a big boost to us for development.”
Improvements Expected
We are yet to see McLaren’s full-spec 2016 car but we have a good idea after testing at what to expect, the engine they used on the final two days is going to be pretty much the same at the first race with perhaps some subtle upgrades. The finished article will not be seen until at least practice at the Australian Grand Prix, but Boullier would not be drawn on any confirming whether we will definitely see changes in Melbourne.
“If you ask me for a date, a commitment or something, we can’t say anything and we don’t want to say anything,” said Boullier.
