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Missing first test won't compromise car - McLaren

McLaren will start testing in a largely unmodified 2010 car © Sutton Images

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McLaren has no concerns it might compromise the reliability of its 2011 car by skipping the first test of the season.

The team plans to launch the MP4-26 on February 4 and will turn up to the first test in Valencia with a 2010 car featuring just "a number of development items" and none of the new-for-2011 parts such as moveable rear wings and KERS. Its main rivals Red Bull and Ferrari will bring their 2011 cars to the first test, but engineering director Paddy Lowe is confident McLaren has made the right call.

"It's always been in our plan to launch it after the first test," confirmed Lowe. "One of the reasons was we wanted to make use of the first test to work with the old car, a stable and known platform, whilst we understand the new tyres and get to know those. It also gave us a bit more time in the programme for the new car, so it's always been planned that way and it's one that we considered optimal in race preparation overall.

"It's always a bit of a balancing act between how much mileage you're going to cover from the reliability point of view and from a set-up point of view working with the new car," Lowe said. "Then you're trading against development time in the lab, the wind tunnel and in the office. We've taken that position but it's a trade."

He said that the 2011 car should be reliable straight away and that restricting the mileage on the chassis was not an issue.

"In terms of reliability impact, more and more work is now done in the lab, typically on the dynamometer to prove out the major mechanical systems on the car. So we're more confident these days that we can hit the ground running with a reliable package without needing to do thousands and thousands of kilometres on the track.

"You always do learn something from the mileage, but it's a trade. I hope we're not proven wrong in that respect, but we're reasonably confident that we can get the reliability that we need from those three tests."

Lowe also cleared up the reason for launching the car in Berlin.

"It's at the request of Vodafone, they want to launch in Berlin," he said. "It's part of the Vodafone Germany operation."

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