McLaren: Learned quite a lot and improved a few things

Mar.2 (McLaren) Foggy and overcast at dawn, clearing by mid-morning to remain warm and sunny for the rest of the day. Maximum ambient temperature 18.9°C, maximum track temperature 37.2°C

Second day of testing at Barcelona, and Lewis jumped into the car today. When early-morning fog kept the circuit closed, the team continued rehearsing full-race-crew pitstops in the pitlane.

However, the majority of the day was spent making lengthy adjustments to set-up in order to more fully understand the effects of change on the car. This meant the day was centred more around development, and less on headline-making laptimes.

The day also saw the expected conclusion of our evaluation of our launch-spec aero package. For Saturday and Sunday, we plan to introduce a suite of new components for evaluation ahead of the opening race in Australia in a fortnight’s time.

At the end of the day, a satisfied Lewis said:
“Today was all about testing set-up. It was a good day: we learned quite a lot and improved a few things. We didn’t get a lot of mileage, as we had a lot of downtime in between changes.

“Our car feels better set-up wise, we still haven’t added the new aero package – so I think we’ll get a better picture of what the car will be like in Australia, over the next two days. But I definitely feel like we have a competitive car.

“This year’s Winter testing has been way better than last year. I’ve not had any problems, we’ve ironed out a lot of issues and I feel very comfortable. I’m fit and ready for Melbourne.”