McLaren overcome early setback to get Day One back on track
Thursday 13 December 2018 16:28, UK
Fernando Alonso believes McLaren's Renault partnership has "huge potential" after completing a half-century of laps on the new MCL33's full testing debut.
Although McLaren endured a dramatic start to Day One when a wheel nut failure pitched Alonso into the gravel at Barcelona's high-speed final turn, the team's new car ran reliably thereafter and showed flashes of promising speed to finish seventh fastest.
The Spaniard was initially classified fifth but had his time deleted for cutting the final chicane.
Red Bull fastest from Mercedes on opening day
Nonetheless, Alonso was satisfied with the maiden outing for the MCL33 and its new Renault engine after completing 51 laps.
"So far so good," he told reporters. "Obviously very early days, but the car and engine was running fine.
Alonso loses wheel - and time - in early setback
"I know a lot of people from Renault from my past. I know 80 per cent of people in the garage and how they work and how much attention they play to driveability and the performance of the engine.
"Every run was a nice chat with them, in Navarra at the filming day and also here. It was running very smoothly. There are a few things we are trying to change and adapt like every new car. But on the engine side extremely happy and there is huge potential in the McLaren-Renault team."
The Woking team endured a torrid three-year marriage to Honda with many of the union's tensest moments coming during often-fruitless weeks of testing.
But asked how the early stages of their 2018 engine partnership were going, team chief Zak Brown said: "Everything's going very well.
"We have a close working relationship and everyone has worked very hard in the off-season. We're enjoying working with them and they're enjoying working with us. So far everything is very good."
Racing director Eric Boullier, who was boss at the Renault-engined Lotus team in 2010-13, also described early progress as "so far, so good".
Watch the latest updates from Barcelona
However, Boullier stressed McLaren were not yet looking too far ahead and were focused on understanding the MCL33.
"I'm expecting a lot [this season], but we will not draw any expectations now," he said. "We have to understand first where we are.
"We need to need to assess our car and feed back to Woking to see what correlates with that has been simulated."
Alonso brushes off spin
The sight of Alonso's McLaren beached in the gravel immediately evoked memories of the team's dark Honda years when they were beset by unreliability. However, while it looked dramatic, Alonso cheekily suggested some rival teams were having far bigger difficulties behind the screens of their garages.
Asked what he thought during the incident, Alonso said: "That it was a good day for you guys [the media]!
"It was a very, very small problem but very graphic and very obvious because a car in the gravel is a big thing. There are six teams in the garage with the door closed with the car in pieces, but no one sees - there are no pictures of that. There are a lot of teams in trouble - and big trouble - and for us with a wheelnut it will make the big thing of the day.
