Honda is working hard behind the scenes to rectify the problems it has encountered with its new power unit over the opening two days of pre-season testing according to McLaren racing boss Eric Boullier.
McLaren has completed just 69 laps across two days compared to the 320 laps completed by the so far bullet-proof Mercedes, marking a difficult start to the 2017 season for the partnership.
The team was forced to change Fernando Alonso's engine after just one lap on Monday, whilst Stoffel Vandoorne also had to wait for a change on Tuesday, as the initial engine fitted on Monday was placed back into the MCL32.
Boullier insists Honda is working to rectify the issues as soon as possible and said some issues were expected.
"It’s a shame we weren’t able to maximise the track time today due to the issue with the power unit, but it was encouraging once again that the team pulled together to replace the PU quickly in order to enable us to return to the track at the end of the afternoon session," he commented.
"When you design a new car and power unit under new regulations, it’s possible that there will be issues that arise that you cannot foresee in pre-season development.
"Of course, it’s unfortunate, but the important thing is that we learn from them, and there is already a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes by Honda to identify the issues and rectify them as soon as possible.
"Testing is just that: the prove-out of new components prior to the start of the season. We’ll continue with our planned test programme tomorrow with Fernando, and keep pushing to make the most of the day’s running."
Honda's Yusuke Hasegawa described the problems as "disappointing" and said a full investigation was underway to diagnose the cause of the issues.
"We know we had a mechanical issue and we will not be reusing the power unit for this test, but we’ll have to investigate fully to identify the cause.
"Stoffel was back out on track by late afternoon and we were able to recover our schedule," he added. "Of course, it was disappointing to encounter further problems today, but tonight we’ll carry on our hard work to make further progress for Fernando’s session tomorrow."
