McLaren confident they now understand Honda engine problems in Abu Dhabi test

McLaren are confident they understand the problems with their new Honda engine which bedevilled its first public outing after implementing an emergency "recovery plan".

After putting the first miles on Honda’s brand new 2015 engine and energy-recovery systems in an interim version of this year’s MP4-29 car during a filming day at Silverstone, the McLaren-Honda ran again in the post-season test at the Yas Marina circuit last month. However, test driver Stoffel Vandoorne was on track for just five laps across the two-day test as various electrical problems intervened.

Eric Boullier, McLaren’s Racing Director, believes they have since got to the bottom of the issues and says their engineers have been working hard over the last few weeks to fix the problems.

"We changed a little bit the schedule and we sent Honda, McLaren people and the car itself back here [to Woking] for full investigations," the Frenchman said.

"They worked very hard for a week and they found out everything. A recovery plan is in place. Part of it has already been fixed, so there are now some further tests on dynos to validate."

Boullier, who didn’t rule out the possibility of McLaren conducting another filming day before the start of pre-season testing at Jerez in February, added: “It was not only one problem. There were hardware issues which obviously made the wrong software code.

“So then we had to first find out what was wrong in the hardware system to fix the software system.”

Although their second Honda era endured a stuttering start in Abu Dhabi, McLaren’s hopes are high that they are back on the right path after two winless campaigns and last week finally announced the star signing of Fernando Alonso from Ferrari.

That coup had been preceded by significant arrivals on the technical side – most notably former Red Bull chief aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou – and Boullier is pleased with how the atmosphere has developed at the team since his arrival in January.

“I’m very happy with the team spirit and the racing culture, which is massively growing,” he said.

“The first job was to make sure the aero department was in order and now it is. All the components are at the right mind-set and this kind of [driver] announcement is helping to faster grow this mind-set.”