The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
More testing woes for McLaren in Barcelona
Engine problems restrict British team’s lap times
McLaren’s troubled pre-season campaign showed little sign of abating in Barcelona as further reliability issues plagued their second day of testing.
While Lewis Hamilton and then Valtteri Bottas pounded round the Circuit de Catalunya as Mercedes continued to show off the astonishing reliability they hope will fire them to yet further glory, McLaren were restricted to 40 laps.
McLaren may have won a combined 20 drivers’ and constructors’ championships in the sport, but they have fallen dramatically down the grid in recent years and their renewed relationship with Japanese engine supplier Honda has been thoroughly disappointing.
After Fernando Alonso missed the majority of the opening day in his Spanish homeland with an oil leak, Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian driver who has replaced Jenson Button this year, also fell foul of further woes from the team’s unreliable engine.
There were early signs of trouble for the British team here when Vandoorne stopped at the entry to the pit lane after completing only a handful of laps. He then had to be pushed back to his garage by the McLaren mechanics.
Shortly before lunch, Vandoorne then lost power from his engine which had to be replaced. He lost more crucial time and while he re-emerged in the latter stages of the day, added just 11 further laps to his morning tally.
With a quarter of testing, before the new season gets under way in Melbourne, now completed, McLaren have managed only 69 laps. Mercedes, in contrast, have a mammoth 320 laps under their belt.
For once, however, it was not Hamilton’s name at the top of the order, but that of Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari continued their strong start to testing.
The Finnish veteran’s best lap of one minute and 20.960 seconds was marginally faster than Hamilton, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen 1.2 seconds off the pace in third.