McLaren’s testing has gone from bad to worse, with the MCL33 coming to a halt on track for the 3rd time in 2 days(and once in the pit lane) after an encouraging little period on track on Day 2 of Test 2.
McLaren had some engine cooling issues yesterday as confirmed by Boullier yesterday and though it brought them to a halt three time, Boullier stressed on the fact that there was not much to worry, as the problem had a rather simple solution.
Boullier’s words must have worked as a balm for a lot of McLaren fans, but his justification proved out to be hollow instead, as the MCL33 was brought to a halt once again, after having completed more than 42 laps on the track in the morning session.
Also Read: McLaren clarify issues on Day 1 of Test two
In the early hours of the day, Alonso was at the top of the charts with a lap time of 1:19.856, however he was knocked off the perch by Hamilton and Vettel later.
Just as it seemed that the MCL33 was warming up decently well, Alonso’s car broke down at Turn Seven.
Alonso was quick to get out of his car and inspect what had gone wrong this time round.
McLaren have now confirmed that an oil leak caused the car to break down and that they have decided to change the engine, which could keep Alonso off the track for 3 hours.
McLaren have to back to the drawing board and fix things quickly as there are only couple of days of testing left before the big Australian Grand Prix on the 25th of March.
The switch from Honda to Renault which was supposed to bring glory days back to the team hasn’t quite shown the promise that it was supposed to. But with Renault F1 itself running without any reliability issues, maybe the problem always was with McLaren(and the engine).
