Formula 1

Fernando Alonso left frustrated by McLaren-Honda problems

Published Feb. 27, 2017 2:21 p.m. ET

Adam Cooper

Fernando Alonso was both “disappointed” and “sad” after he completed only 29 laps with the new McLaren MCL32 in testing in Barcelona on Monday.

Alonso had an oil system problem right at the start of the morning session, and then had other issues when he returned to the track in the afternoon. He admits that the loss of track time will be costly.

“I think it’s definitely not a perfect start of the winter testing,” he said. “I think it’s at the same time easy and fair to say after all the difficulties we had the last two years it’s a nice temptation for you guys to maximize today’s problems, because it’s quite interesting from the media point of view that after two difficult seasons we arrive to the winter testing and we don’t run the first day, unfortunately.

“But in terms of the performance point of view or the team point of view, we have to concentrate and try to recover time. As I said we are disappointed, sad, to arrive to the first day and not be able to run. We know and we are aware of the time we lost today, we have four days for each driver before a World Championship starts, and now one day is gone.

“So I have three days to prepare for a World Championship. So it’s not an ideal situation, but it’s the way it is. As I said there’s nothing more we can do from today more than learn from whatever happened to the car, and recover in the next days.”

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