McLaren are struggling to catch a break as they were again plagued by technical problems with Fernando Alonso on duty during the morning session of the second day of the Formula 1 preseason test at Circuit de Catalunya.
The birth of their Renault powered era on track has been a difficult one and on a day when times dropped substantially and teams were accumulating good mileage their plight was plain to see as they toiled behind closed garage doors in Barcelona losing out on valuable track time.
After three stoppages 24 hours earlier when Stoffel Vandoorne was at the wheel of the MCL33, it was Alonso this time who after enjoying 33 laps during an early morning stint was shortly later in the garage as his team changed engines.
Meanwhile, their rivals were piling on the laps as they pushed and set hitherto unseen lap times around the Spanish Grand Prix venue, while accumulating valuable mileage.
With ten minutes remaining in the full day session, Alonso finally left the pits for a few laps but all in all it was another day of frustration.
Fernando’s back on track for the final minutes of Wednesday’s running. Solid effort from the crew to get the MCL33 on track again. #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/wGisqvJILS
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 7, 2018