Webber: Grand Prix disrupted by McLaren?

Mark Webber had a somewhat disappointing Australian Grand Prix as the local driver of the event only took sixth place when he started from the first row of the starting grid. The pilot Red Bull lost many positions when the lights went out as he fell from second to fifth place. But its poor start could be explained by telemetry problems having preceded SREC problems.

“Mark's issues were very frustrating as it was a problem with the electronic control unit which is supplied by a third party. I'll let you guess who it came from.", comments Team Principal Christian Horner. “We lost all telemetry during the formation lap and we could no longer do the necessary preparation for the start. This means it was blind to the lights going out and this electronics problem also had effects on the SREC. We rebooted the entire system. This is something that they have to make foolproof because we had already had many problems in testing. »

The system in question is none other than the electronic control unit produced by McLaren Electronic Systems which equips all the single-seaters on the grid. The problems arose during winter testing during an update carried out to prepare the systems for the transition to the 6l turbo hybrid V1.6 which will come into force next year. In Melbourne, the Woking subsidiary was also singled out when the FIA ​​was forced to cancel warning lights on the steering wheel indicating the color of the flags waved on the track by the marshals.

Discover the analysis of the Australian Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.