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McLaren and Sauber pass crash tests

ESPN Staff
December 19, 2014 « Ecclestone and Montezemolo return to F1 board | Nasr picks 12 as race number »
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Both McLaren and Sauber have announced in recent weeks that their 2015 chassis have passed mandatory FIA crash tests.

McLaren is preparing for the return of Honda next year, but has also overhauled its chassis and aerodynamic teams in an attempt to stop the rot that has seen it fail to win a race since 2012. At its recent driver announcement of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, team boss Ron Dennis said good progress had been made on the chassis side and aerodynamically the team had benefitted from running some new parts during practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

"On the car side, we have just gone through all our crash tests, we are well ahead on programme and the critical test in Abu Dhabi absolutely gave us true north in terms of where we need to go aerodynamically," he said. "Recently [chief designer] Peter Prodromou has joined the company and has been absolutely fundamental in determining what true north is aerodynamically.

"Clearly when that compass heading stabilises it gives you a clear indication that the direction you were going in is completely wrong and of course that manifests itself as an uncompetitive car. Ultimately, I think we are well equipped and the key ingredient to optimise the car-chassis performance is possibly the best driver line-up that's ever existed in Formula One."

On Thursday Sauber also confirmed its 2015 car had passed its chassis crash tests, a positive step after the team made no secret of its financial struggles last year.

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