Comparisons between new McLaren era with Renault and the old one with Honda it’s one of the main discussions on the paddock. The reality is that the Renault one started just as the Honda era finished, with lots of problems between electric and hydraulic issues, and now with this oil leak, just as Red Bull finished last testing week last Thursday.
Boullier confirmed from Barcelona-Catalunya circuit that their power unit dead this morning: “It’s not a related engine problema. We had a little oil leak on the car an unfortunately, engine is dead. We will have to change it, which will take 3 hours aproximately.” Bad news fror the team when they would like to recover from yestarday’s bad start of new testing week.
“The time we lost in the box we can’t take profit on the track, last week we got some snow so we are trying to make a plan. We must be sure that we priorize time on track”, says the french on the press conference planned for today at McLaren where the keep on chasing the dream of complete “as much mileague as posible. It’s not enough at the moment. We are trying to understand where is everybody. We try to take the maximun information from long runs, so we will see.”
“It’s not related. We try to do the best cposible car. When you do a new design car you have to analyze on track so we try to take the máximum from the car, be sure that the aerodynamic details give us the best performance, but I don’t think it’s related with the oil leak”, insists Boullier. “We have to remind that this is a test and that’s why we are having problems. Red Bull used new soft tyres and they are only half of a second faster. There are technical reasons to use softer tyres. We know that we are not at the tgop, this a new relationship with Renault, that’s what testing is about.”
When the engine is changed, Fernando Alonso will be again on the track for today’s afternoon session behind the wheel of the MCL33 to try to finish the day without issues and to do the plan of the team, because they already didn’t do a single race simulation when it only remains two more days of testing.
“If you fix the regulations life is the same. If you give more years to this engines, things will become closer. Renault is working hard to do a more powerfull and more reliable engine. If you look at last year, there are not so much diferences between performance and reliability. Red Bull suffered a bit and they keep on it”, explains former team principal of Lotus Renault.
Last of all, Boullier had to face the controversion question of the day where he was asked about Lewis Hamilton words on new Barcelona-Catalunya circuit tarmac where the brit said it was a waste of money and time and on his opinion that erased the track personality and become less challenging for drivers: “I have our drivers point of view. Barcelona track keeps being the same, but the tarmac is smoother and without bumps. It changes tyres behavior, but for me it’s the same track.”
