McLaren has worked a lot on cooling its MCL33

Switching from Honda to Renault for the supply of its V6 turbo / hybrid Power Unit, McLaren was awaiting smooth winter testing in order to continue the development of its MCL33.

Unfortunately for the men from Woking, several small technical problems (battery, turbo, etc.) disrupted the Catalan running. Losses of time which did not seem to worry those responsible for the British team during testing, McLaren believing that it had solved one of its main problems following the arrival of the French engine: cooling.

“We had an ambitious design, so we had to work with the time we had on the track and not in the garage to try to understand the cooling, explains Eric Boullier, competition director of McLaren Racing.

We did a race simulation yesterday without any problems. We raced Friday afternoon and there are no problems, so I think we adjusted our cooling and needs to the car. So far, it’s working.”

Expected to turn the corner this year, with chassis regularly considered to be among the most efficient, and with the reinforcement of the Renault unit, the McLaren team wishes to be in the right tempo quickly this season, after three seasons spent far from the standing of the team of Woking.

« If you want to be competitive, you have to be a little aggressive and have ambition, continues Eric Boullier. We just need to make sure that with this strategy we give ourselves enough time to get everything done. »

McLaren accumulated 599 laps over the eight days of running in Barcelona, ​​the lowest total of the ten teams on the grid. Small reason for satisfaction for the English, Fernando Alonso achieved the third cumulative time yesterday in 1'17″784, six tenths of the reference of Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), and on the same pneumatic compound (hyper-soft).