The revised MGU-K seal McLaren introduced at today’s test suffered a repeat failure, the team has confirmed.
Jenson Button’s running was disrupted when the original part failed two days ago, and he suffered a repeat of the same problem when a revised seal was fitted to the car today.
Button therefore completed just 24 laps and ended the day at the bottom of the time sheets.
“It hasn’t been my day,” Button rued afterwards. “We had a similar problem to the one we faced on Thursday, with the faulty MGU-K seal, so the afternoon running was limited to aero testing and pit stop practice.”
However Button remains optimistic about the car’s potential. “I still can’t comment on where the car will be when everything is running smoothly, as I haven’t had the chance to run it properly without meeting problems,” he said.
“Having said that, I feel like there’s definitely nothing wrong with the car or any stand-out issues with driveability. You jump in the car and everything feels good.”
Button’s test was also disrupted by a puncture which caused him to stop at the pit lane exit. He expects Fernando Alonso will experienced another frustrating day tomorrow.
“Hopefully our problems will be solved sooner rather than later, but tomorrow is still likely to be a reasonably difficult day.”
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petebaldwin (@)
21st February 2015, 20:13
Bad news for McLaren as they’ve only really got one more shot at fixing the issue before they head for Australia. Any problems there and they’re not going to be able to ship out revised parts….
MB (@muralibhats)
21st February 2015, 21:30
Scientific approach solving issues Alonso?
zoom (@zoomracing)
22nd February 2015, 4:40
Do you think that scientific figure vaccines at first try?.
patriots_fan (@f1007)
22nd February 2015, 5:22
what a dumb comment
Arki (@arki19)
21st February 2015, 22:56
Regardless of what they are telling us, there must be serious worry at McLaren about even finishing the first few races. They have not even got to the point where the engine can be turned up to where it is for race weekends. I hope they can make some serious progress tonight (Melbourne time) and at the next test.
I remember thinking the same about Red Bull last year and they did fine in Australia but that was more cooling issues due to the tight aerodynamic packaging not issues related completely to the engine (I think). McLaren haven’t even got to that point yet.
There must be some very busy folks back in Japan.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
22nd February 2015, 1:02
It’s only testing. I’m sure Honda won’t be the new Peugeot but there’ll be a few trudges back to the pits for Alonso and Button early in the season.
But still, they seem to get caught out rather easily. It’s a long, long time since they turned up at Monaco with 6 cars for two drivers…
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
22nd February 2015, 1:53
Wait until Melbourne, people, wait until Melbourne…
GB (@bgp001ruled)
22nd February 2015, 20:26
… when they will be way back there…
Mike (@mike)
22nd February 2015, 3:46
Eh, the other engines all had problems last year. Australia I remember, the Lotus’…. So, yeah. Give it time.
Chris
22nd February 2015, 7:27
No worries, McLaren / Hobda have all year to fix it before Lewis arrives & Alonso leaves in a huff.
GB (@bgp001ruled)
22nd February 2015, 20:29
yeah! lewis will be delighted to return to a critically ill team…
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
22nd February 2015, 11:05
I think that this car is going to be like the MP4-19. I think that it will be slow and unreliable, so they will not be running at full power at the first race, when the engine will still fail even when it’s not on full power.
Broke84 (@broke84)
22nd February 2015, 11:58
One would be foolish to write off McLaren completely. Yes they are the only team running the engine and are lacking valuable data from other teams but once they get on top of broken seals and other teething problems then don’t expect them to be breaking down constantly or running at the back. Honda is hardly a garage team.