A pleasant surprise for McLaren
After a complicated season, McLaren is looking to bounce back. A first step was taken this Friday as both drivers managed to slip into the top 10 during both sessions.
Fernando Alonso is not the type of driver to hide his feelings, as we saw last year. The message is quite different today as the Spanish driver even admits that he was positively surprised by his day: « It’s nice to be back in Melbourne: sometimes when you come out of winter testing and go to another circuit, you have a good surprise… or a bad surprise. Well, today, we got a good surprise. »
The reason for such satisfaction is that, despite the most unpredictable weather, the team managed to complete almost all of its program: « We more or less completed our program: there are a few things we didn’t accomplish because we didn’t have enough running on the dry. But it was the same for everyone. Let’s hope we can do our brake and ride height checks tomorrow. »
For Jenson Button, even if the rain hadn’t caused disruptions, the tests would have been complicated by the strong wind blowing at Albert Park: « It wasn’t the easiest day to be in a race car: even in the dry, this 50 km/h wind made things very complicated, and the rain made them even more complex. In fact, in conditions like today, when it’s raining and windy, you can lose control of the car very easily. Let’s hope it will be calmer tomorrow. »
Eric Boullier could therefore be satisfied that his drivers did not make the slightest error in order to maximize track time: « Our positions during today’s two sessions highlighted the team’s experience and competence in managing unexpected and difficult conditions. It would have been easy to make mistakes or miss valuable track time. But, in fact, the opposite happened: we gathered a lot of useful information to understand which direction we need to take for the rest of the weekend. »
