• Abu Dhabi Test - Day Two

New McLaren-Honda issue 'completely unknown'

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A "completely unknown problem" has delayed McLaren's second day of testing with its new Honda power unit.

McLaren registered just three laps on its first day of testing with Honda power on Tuesday and encountered a fuel/data exchange issue. Fifteen minutes ahead of the start of the second day, everything looked fine but when it came to leaving the garage at 09:00 the car failed to start due to an electrical issue.

"It's part of the strangeness of the electrical parts," racing director Eric Boullier said. "You plug everything in and everything's fine, then it stops working. So you unplug it, you dismantle and separately they are both fine. So today we have a completely unknown problem. Everything was fine this morning, car on the ground, fire up at 08:45 to leave the garage; new issue. Absolutely unknown."

However, Boullier said the lost track time was not a major concern as the team was treating the two days in Abu Dhabi as a bonus before two months of further work ahead of pre-season testing next year.

"To be honest, compared to our other colleagues, showing up and turning up in Jerez having this kind of problem I think would hurt. This is why actually we ran this separate development car because we decided whatever happens it will only be a bonus if we can try to run it before the end of the season.

"So to be honest with you, having the chance to try to run it yesterday or today for us is just a bonus on top of everything because behind the scenes the most important thing is building the cooperation between both companies, running operations, which obviously is one of the key topics.

"Yes, firing up the engine and running it is one, but what people need to understand as well is behind the scenes there are maybe 200 people working together and you need to make these people work together properly. So everything we do today, even if we don't run, is positive anyway for the future. It's frustrating, we want to run, but it's positive anyway."

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