On the second day of testing in Abu Dhabi McLaren continued to suffer problems with their new Honda engine.
On Tuesday promising youngster and GP2 racer Stoffel Vandoorne got into the seat of the new McLaren, but completed just three laps with the new Honda power unit.
The car suffered ‘a fuel/data exchange issue’ which severely cut their testing programme short.
McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier played down the issues and stated that ‘[Wednesday] will hopefully be all about conducting longer runs as we learn about different parts of the engine, and run through each separate system.?
Well that didn’t prove to be the case with Vandoorne sitting out the entire morning as McLaren worked on the car as it was suffering electrical problems.
Then when the car did get out on track in broke down on it’s second lap, ending a disappointing two-day session with just five laps of running.
‘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. And, to be honest, I?d rather be ironing out these problems here in Abu Dhabi, than discovering them in Jerez, next February,’ said Boullier to the media.
?It?s definitely been a positive for both McLaren and Honda to conduct this test ? there have been some troublesome issues, but we?ve made progress. We?ve also made an excellent start to the relationship ? communication and interaction have been great, and you can really feel the positivity and sense of purpose in the garage. Any mileage we accrued this week would simply have been a bonus.’
The other teams all managed to complete a very high level of running on Wednesday.
Sauber completed 112 laps, Mercedes 96, Ferrari 91, Force India 89, Red Bull Racing 88, Lotus 86, Williams 83, Toro Rosso 78 and Caterham 76.
20-year-old Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein set the fastest lap of the day 0.584 seconds faster than 19-year-old Ferrari youngster and GP2 race winner Raffaele Marciello.
In third came recently turned 17-year-old Max Verstappen for Toro Rosso to complete a very young looking top of the time sheets.
1. Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes, 1m 42.624s, 96 laps
2. Raffaele Marciello, Ferrari, 1m 43.208s, 91 laps
3. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 43.763s, 78 laps
4. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 44.551s, 112 laps
5. Will Stevens, Caterham, 1m 44.888s, 76 laps
6. Spike Goddard, Force India, 1m 44.944s, 89 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 45.151s, 88 laps
8. Felipe Nasr, Williams, 1m 45.937s, 83 laps
9. Alex Lynn, Lotus, 1m 46.168s, 52 laps
10. Esteban Ocon, Lotus, 1m 47.013s, 34 laps
11. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, no time, 2 laps
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