The debut of the McLaren-Honda MP4-29H/1X1 interim car turned into a frustrating series of technical problems.
Over two days, the McLaren completed just 5 laps of the Yas Marina circuit, just 27.8km. Yesterday, an electronic issue meant the car spent the morning in the garage, but McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne managed to conduct a number of exploratory installation runs throughout the afternoon. He was halted on a couple of occasions by a fuel/data exchange issue - the second of which left him stranded on the circuit, causing a red flag.
Today, the morning programme was scuppered by a hard-to-find electrical issue, which halted progress while the engineers traced the cause. In the afternoon, the team got the MP4-29H/1X1 on the track. Vandoorne successfully completed an installation lap, and had begun a four-lap run when the car shut down. The British team will thoroughly investigate the issue back at the McLaren Technology Centre.
"Although this looked like another difficult day, this is just part of the learning experience we expected when we took on the interim car programme," said Eric Boullier, racing director, McLaren Racing. "To be honest, I'd rather be ironing out these problems here in Abu Dhabi, than discovering them in Jerez, next February," he added. "Any mileage we accrued this week would simply have been a bonus," Eric Boullier ended.
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