McLaren confident in chassis despite Honda issues

McLaren is confident the MCL32 has a good chassis to develop in 2017 despite problems with the Honda power unit during pre-season testing.

Only Toro Rosso managed fewer laps than McLaren's tally of 208 across the opening four days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as Honda suffered an oil system issue on the first day of running and was halted by an unknown loss of power to the engine. While McLaren racing director Eric Boullier admits McLaren is severely limited on the amount of time it will have to learn about the MCL32, the racing director has been encouraged by the driver feedback so far.

"Pretty good actually," Boullier replied when asked for his impressions of the new car. "I think any car in the world, even the perfect car, you push the car to the limits and you will still have understeer or something like this. I guess at least for the chassis, both drivers doesn't complain and feels the base of the chassis is good.

"There will be a very high development rate for the beginning of the season especially. I expect other teams to bring a million new parts in Australia already, so at least the base is good. That means the platform is good and we can develop around this which is good."

Analyzing McLaren's rivals, Boullier is among those who wasn't expect to see such a strong showing from Ferrari in the opening test, but warns the coming four days will still not give a clear picture of the pecking order due to the high development rate this season.

"It's obviously difficult to say. You don't know the level of fuel, you don't know the level of, especially the Mercedes engine, when you switch down the power.

"If I may say something it's maybe that the Ferrari is surprising, maybe people were not expecting Ferrari to be matching Mercedes in times. Red Bull a bit down but you never know the fuel level.

"Everybody has got it on secret. Everybody is changing the plans. So even between teams we try to find out or sort out who is doing what. It's not easy. I guess the next week's test will be a bit more revealing about performance but definitely we will have to wait until Australia."