Honda problems are not fundamental - McLaren

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier is confident there are no fundamental problems with the Honda power unit despite a slow start to pre-season testing.

Fernando Alonso was limited to 29 laps on the opening day of testing by an oil system issue, before Stoffel Vandoorne managed a further 40 laps on Tuesday after a loss of power. The third day saw Fernando Alonso more than double the team's tally, but it was still less than half the mileage completed by Mercedes on Wednesday, and Boullier admits: "We have many issues.

"I think no one [issue] is fundamental. All of them can be fixable. I'm not sure we know yet, even [Honda chief Yusuke] Hasegawa-san, all of them because [Tuesday's] engine on its way to Japan. [On Wednesday] finally we can run so we have some of the glitches, the usual one you get on day one but obviously we have them on day three, but it's obviously a new layout for the engine for Honda, and maybe someone expected glitches but nothing is fundamental."

Running was more consistent on the final two days of the test but Hasegawa, Honda's head of F1 project, apologized to the McLaren drivers for the lack of track time at the start of testing.

"Obviously we are not happy to have trouble but this is a test and we are feeling sorry about both drivers," Hasegawa said. "So we need to find out what happened on the day two engine especially.

"We feel sorry to the drivers and Eric but it is good to find out some issues in the test. Especially the first day. So I think we can gain some data from that. From an engine point of view, I don't think it's a big effect of the development."

Honda will introduce an upgraded power unit for the second test, which will be the specification used in Melbourne. For now, Hasegawa says the new power unit remains unchanged until the cause of the loss of power is known.

"We didn't know the exact cause of the problem of Tuesday's engine so, so far we plan the same as the operation. We didn't change anything, because we don't know the cause of the problem but I believe that we of course can solve the issue before Melbourne."