McLaren is in a “race against time” to bring upgraded parts to Bahrain and fix a brake issue that has hampered its Bahrain test.
The Woking-based squad tallied just 50 laps on Thursday, and clocked just 29 during the opening four hours of running on Friday.
The team is dealing with overheating brakes, which is preventing it from completing long runs at the test.
Team Principal Andreas Seidl says McLaren is working to bring the new parts to the circuit to solve the issue, with on-track action wrapping up on Saturday evening.
“After the good test we had in Barcelona, this first one-and-a-half days here definitely did not go to plan,” Seidl said.
“We have unexpectedly an issue with the front axle with the brake, which we have to solve. So [we’re in] a race against time at the moment in order to get upgraded parts.
“We will make steps with modifications that we could do here in the track, which still allow us to work on the car, working on the understanding of the car as well. We could run some small upgrades on the car as well, in order to extract more performance from the package.”
Despite the setback just one week before the opening race of the 2022 season, Seidl believes that McLaren will be in strong shape for the first grand prix of the campaign.
“I’m still optimistic that despite the running time we lost and the limited laps we can do that, in the end, we can leave the track here well prepared for the first race weekend,” he said.
Lando Norris has completed all of McLaren’s on-track running so far in Bahrain, with an unwell Daniel Ricciardo sitting out Thursday and Friday’s action.
