[smr2018test]
Fernando Alonso said McLaren’s problems during pre-season testing are nothing out of the ordinary and that he’d be happy if the first race was tomorrow.
Asked about the stoppages he and Stoffel Vandoorne have experienced in the first six days of running Alonso said: “I think this is more or less normal in every new car.”
“Maybe you are new to this but I’m in [my] 18th winter testing and I keep discovering things ever since then.
Alonso described McLaren’s situation as “more or less OK” despite the team having covered the lowest mileage of any team. “There is nothing fundamentally wrong in the car,” he insisted.
“The issues we have, they are well under control. Unfortunately we keep discovering small things every day but that I think is putting us in a strong position for Australia in the way that we are reinforcing all the small issues.”
Alonso said the team completed all of its necessary running before his car stopped today but admitted “we would like to do a little bit more laps today.”
“The programme was longer than 50 laps, but at the end of the day we discovered things since yesterday with Stoffel and today with myself. This is part of testing, hopefully these things don’t happen on lap 10 in Melbourne so in a way I’m happy to keep making the car stronger.
“All the important parts, all the important things on the programme, we managed to do it in the morning. The rest of the day was more about long runs and putting laps but with no information needed at that time. I’m not too stressed about the laps we lost today.”
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2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
Pratyush P (@pratyushp276)
7th March 2018, 18:27
“He’d be happy if the first race were tomorrow…..”
…. of WEC, that is.
Philip (@philipgb)
7th March 2018, 18:28
As much as I wish I could agree with Alonso that this is just testing and hiccups are fine here as long as they are sorted for the race you only have to look at every test since 2014 so see the result of a faultless testing program. Mercedes don’t even worry about topping time sheets, they hammer out their testing program with military precision and sure enough their race weekends run much the same.
Meanwhile, I wouldn’t even have total confidence of McLaren pulling off successful pit stops let alone dominating a season. If the Honda engine has also come good and Torro Rosso has a good season I think we can kiss goodbye to McLaren being a front-running team.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
7th March 2018, 18:35
@philipgb Mika just called and asked why you were saying the ship he captained had not sailed long ago
Markp
7th March 2018, 18:44
To early to call disaster. Would like it to be a disaster. Since 2015 its been nice watching McLaren struggle, I would prefer Ferrari won a title but McLaren struggles have been a good substitute.
RB14
8th March 2018, 15:24
The worst type of ‘fan’ right here.
discotheque (@discotheque)
9th March 2018, 7:16
+1
Mach1 (@mach1)
7th March 2018, 19:10
Mclaren/Honda – The relationship simplified….
Year 1 –
Honda: We present to you our Square Peg engine!
Mclaren: We have a round hole…..
Honda: Facepalm
Three years later…
Mclaren: We had to convert our round hole to a square hole, but it was so unreliable – it compromised our chassis….we need to move on….
Renault arrive
Renault: We present out round peg engine!!!!!!
Mclaren: We have a square shaped hole……
Renault: Facepalm
Gabriel (@rethla)
7th March 2018, 19:20
Thats great :)
mog
7th March 2018, 19:35
Meanwhile at torro rosso
Honda: Here’s all the details about our engine,as you can see its a different shape to what you had before
TR: Sure, lets collaborate on the chassis then
Barcelona: High fives all round
Quant
7th March 2018, 19:46
But look, if you fold it the right way, it fits!…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvFNCNOyZeE
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th March 2018, 6:49
Ahaha, good one!
MG1982 (@mg1982)
7th March 2018, 20:17
Good old Dennis days…
Matt
7th March 2018, 20:40
Alonso is the only person at Mclaren who speaks like a human, the rest of them are just corporate mouth pieces.
I really do want Alonso to do well but I find that since Whitmarsh was sacked, they have been a very unlikable company and I have not been sad to see them collapse in on themselves like this.
I suppose we will have to wait for at least the next 4 to 5 races to get an idea if they are going to recover with a better engine or not but I have a feeling that while they may be able to at least keep up with the mid field this year, they won´t be a stunning success.
The devil on my shoulder wants to see them limping around the back of the grid again but the angel says give them a chance as they do have some potential but are just suffering from a poorly structured company with some awful policies.
andrew_s (@)
7th March 2018, 21:12
Only thing more dismal for me than McLaren’s performance is Stoke City’s. :(
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
7th March 2018, 21:30
What worries me is that they were equally optimistic at the start with Honda and that went badly… You can’t hide the fact that the car so far has been really unreliable and that’s far from ideal, otherwise we would’ve seen other teams struggle this much so far. But it’s just McLaren.
Todfod (@todfod)
7th March 2018, 21:36
Alonso’s deflecting the media speculation.. but let’s not kid ourselves.. this was the worst possible start McLaren could have to the season. They should be able to turn it around by Barcelona, but the first 3 to 4 races are an extended test session …like they’ve had over the past 3 seasons.
Joao (@johnmilk)
8th March 2018, 0:00
like they’ve had over the past 3 seasons as in taking the first 3 to 4 races as a test session, or having the past 3 seasons as a test session?
chris
8th March 2018, 0:32
Maybe not the worst, but with all the hype they have put onto themselves over the winter with all the inteviews, articles and even a 4 part documentary of how Honda was the bad guy and Honda was the only problem they had and if they change engine then as Alonso puts it “Good times are coming”… They kept talking over the winter that the integration went perfectly well, they are on schedule, the boys did a fantastic job… and then a wheel nut failure, an exhaust clip failure, electrical shudown, hydraulic leak, burned engine cover, battery failure, engine change… While the SMALL B team that is GIVEN to struggle with the UNRELIABLE Honda only had a brake failure… And to even compare them to Toro Rosso is already idotic, they are supposed to be compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and RBR.
Maybe Honda is their only prolem last three years, or maybe not… but you have to wonder if Mclaren is really pushing the limits in terms of design to a point of failure, is their size restriction that forced Honda to make too many compromises in order to fit onto the demands of Mclaren? So far a small indication that their cooling design is on the limit when burn marks appear on the engine cover… and that is on Spain at 10 degee temps, what if its Abu Dhabi, Bharain or Singapore, much worst in Malaysia. They tried to play it down as “minor” when they need to put holes in the engine cover that was design engineers and put to CFD and windtunnel for hours and hours only to put a holes for a “minor” problem.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th March 2018, 6:56
Pretty sure he means “like the whole honda seasons were test seasons”.
socksolid (@socksolid)
7th March 2018, 21:50
If mclaren has an issue they’d probably not mention it. But at the same time testing is about two things. Finding things that break and finding things that make the car faster. And who knows what kind of testing program mclaren was running. Did they go for the smallest cooling just to see how low they can go or did they get something wrong with the car design.
Anyways pre-season tests is the best time to sort out problems and none of the mclaren issues have been what I’d worry about. The engines run, the gearboxes work and there are no strange mechanical or electrical issues. It is almost all easy to figure out and easily fixable problems. The tire issue was just one-off and was caused by not screwing the nut properly. The exhaust thing could have happened to everybody. The battery thing was a renault problem as both renault and red bull had problems with it too.
It is not like renault is very reliable engine either so some issues was expected.
DrG
7th March 2018, 22:07
@socksolid
Right…
Admire your optimism.
I really would like to assume testing is just that for them but frankly…
They are looking truly amateurish for a supposed top team and have done since 2012.
They just had someone else to blame post 2014.
Now? Well not so much.
AJ Pennypacker
7th March 2018, 22:43
McLaren bashing has gotten really boring. Everyone thinks they’re so original with some new way to mock them. While I find Alonso overly optimistic, it must be said that the problems they have had have been minor. The kind of stuff that can be fixed in an afternoon. My bigger concern, however, is the lack of performance. There is no indication whatsoever, that they can be close to the Red Bull. But again, it’s testing, and there are many unknowns. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
8th March 2018, 2:06
Thing is, in f1 You mostly don’t get an Afternoon for Fixing these things. Either your car Works or it does not…
Hanku
7th March 2018, 23:05
Do not despair.
Yes we are upset and for good reason.
But better to have this happen now.
A broken bolt and the battery issues were not their fault.
Sure there are issues – they are starting from scratch – new engine and chassis.
Let the pundits spew their drivel – they are getting their rocks off before the tide turns.
Unless I have misunderstood, the first race is a couple of weeks from now.
The race results are all that matters. Give them more time.
This is McLaren!!
Robbie (@robbie)
8th March 2018, 4:30
@Hanku Thank you. The venom has gotten a bit much. F1 is a constant work in progress. This is a new relationship. Even RBR who were obviously quite competitive at times, had their difficulties last year. And then put it together near the end. But now it seems socially popular to suddenly side with Honda, who so obviously deserves the brunt of the blame.
To deny McLaren time, patience, and understanding, is to simply be vindictive, or to underestimate the degree of difficulty of the sport. Do we not want it to be hard? And therefore a feat of some note? Or should a team be able to just snap their fingers and have it all sorted?
Like it or not, they’re going to have a season to show us what their reality is. And then they’re going to have the season after that. They’re rarely away from the top 3, or at least a few wins. Just as rarely as is the surprise and disappointment that was Honda. Of course all of you putting yourselves in Mac’s shoes last summer having to make a difficult decision, would have had complete faith in staying with Honda for a fourth season. Perhaps even missing out on another option and having to make it a 5’th or more?
Sometimes you just have to cut your losses, and you never have a crystal ball as to exactly what will come next. It’s a work in progress.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th March 2018, 7:18
This time I have to agree, some people here have the crystal ball, but I don’t, in mclaren’s place I’d have given up with honda too, there wasn’t even constant progress, 2017 was like 2015 after an improved 2016.
2018 could or could not have worked, I had absolutely 0 trust in honda after 2017.
Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
8th March 2018, 6:39
Yeah, they’ll show the pundits! 100th time’s a charm.
Jon (@johns23)
7th March 2018, 23:06
This is not ideal, but they’ll sort it out before Melbourne. The spotlight is really on them so problems are magnified a thousand time more. Whether or not they’ll be fast is another story
chris
8th March 2018, 0:00
Yep, Good Times are coming …
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
8th March 2018, 6:31
I’ve also been following winter testing for a while, maybe not 18 years, but still quite a few seasons, and the unreliability I’m seeing from McLaren now is not all that shocking. By contrast, I find that all other teams are running extremely reliably this year, with all teams easily capable of doing 150 laps in a single day. Contrast that to the first year of the hybrid engines, where Renault powered teams often struggled to put in more than a couple of installation laps. Of course, these days there are only two pre-season tests, so there is a little less time for McLaren to muck about.
What I find more worrying for McLaren is that I have not seen any kind of performance that suggests they will be above the midfield. In general I find the testing times quite hard to read this year, but so far only Mercedes have caught the eye by doing quick times on the harder tyres. From what I’ve seen so far, I would say McLaren will be scrapping with Renault and Force India over P4. Maybe Alonso can grab a podium on a lucky day.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th March 2018, 7:21
Mmm, alonso wasn’t able to get a podium for all the honda era, and 2014 wasn’t great either, he may not say so but getting back on the podium would be welcome.
Robert McKay
8th March 2018, 6:34
It doesn’t matter…yet. If they rock up in Melbourne, struggle to make Q2, get beaten by Toro Rosso, and then break down during the race, sure, let the bashing begin. Until then…it’s just testing, even if it doesn’t look great.