Oscar Piastri took to the track on Thursday for the first time during the closed shakedown in Barcelona. Driving for McLaren he climbed into the black car, but his running was short-lived; after a few hours McLaren pulled back into the pit lane. The new car was hampered by fuel problems, preventing the team from completing the planned number of laps. On Friday both Piastri and Lando Norris will run a revised MCL40.
In the morning session Oscar Piastri still covered plenty of mileage for McLaren. The Australian logged 48 laps, but did not return to the circuit in the afternoon. In its day report McLaren confirmed the team had suffered a technical fault. On Friday Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris will be back on track. The car has since been completely stripped down, with the team hoping that resolves the issue.
“It was good to be back out on track today, especially in the new car,” Piastri said through official channels. “There are a lot of challenges this year across the board, so it was good to push again. Unfortunately we had a problem with the fuel system, which cut our day short. The team is working hard to fix that and to be able to run again tomorrow.” McLaren is not the only team encountering issues; rivals’ new cars are also proving not entirely reliable yet.
‘Car completely dismantled’
“These cars are completely different from the ones of recent years,” Piastri explained. “We’ve already identified a few areas we can improve to make the car feel more comfortable. That’s an important part of this test. On Friday we’ll continue to get used to the car and build a clearer picture of how everything feels. After that we’ll pick a clear direction to make the car quicker.” Mark Temple, technical director for performance, agreed. “There are plenty of positives to take away. We have a good sense of where the car sits in its baseline,” the Brit added.
“Overall we haven’t come across anything unexpected,” Temple assured. “The car’s behaviour and handling are as we anticipated, so the drivers aren’t being caught out. As we get more time we’ll continue to optimise the car. This test day is mainly about identifying any issues. It’s obviously a shame we couldn’t run in the afternoon, because every minute on track is extremely valuable. We discovered a problem with the fuel system and then decided to completely strip the car to find the root cause.”
