- Abu Dhabi Test - Day One
Honda sounds powerful - Vandoorne
McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne said Honda's new power unit at least sounded good, even if it only completed three laps during Tuesday's test day in Abu Dhabi.
McLaren is joining forces with Honda next year and the Japanese manufacturer's new power unit made its public debut during the first of two post-season test days in Abu Dhabi. An electrical issue prevented the car running in the morning before it registered just three laps in the afternoon - one of which it failed to complete in full.
As a result, Vandoorne was not able to offer much feedback on the power unit, but did comment on the car's exhaust note.
"The sound is a little bit different, from the car it feels quite nice, actually," he said. "I don't know if it has anything to do with power, but usually they say when it sounds nice it has a lot of power!"
Asked how far the team was behind on its runplan after missing most of Tuesday, Vandoorne said: "Quite a bit. We planned more entry laps today, but already overnight we had some issues so we got delayed this morning. Tomorrow if we get anything more than that then it will be good.
"It was all about building up the power, so we haven't run the engine in full power mode yet. We are expecting to do that over the next day. It is very difficult to get a feeling of it at this stage because we have only done install laps. We had a couple of issues, so it's very difficult to comment."
Vandoorne said McLaren was hoping for more laps on the final day of the 2014 season on Wednesday.
"First of all, solve the issues we had today and then see if we can get more laps in. Every lap is very valuable because after these two days we will have two months' time to come up with new ideas for next year. Hopefully we will get in more laps for tomorrow."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
