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Stoffel Vandoorne says his McLaren team is facing "a combination of everything" with regards to the technical problems that have plagued it throughout winter testing.
These have continuously disrupted the Belgian's track time, but he is still confident he will be fully ready for the Australian Grand Prix.
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Electrical faults that were attributed to McLaren's markedly unreliable Honda engine caused two red flags in Barcelona on Thursday, adding to the growing sense of frustration within the team.
With yet another complication affecting its testing period, Vandoorne was asked what he thought McLaren needed to improve on - and he didn't deny that there could be developments throughout the MCL32.
"It is a combination of everything," he explained. "We haven't been able to perform on long runs, a little bit of work yesterday which was okay, but we haven't done the mileage like we wanted to do.
"We have a lot of work to do and we will try to work as a team together to get to Melbourne with a stronger package. Fernando has one more day in the car tomorrow and hopefully overnight we will find some new things with the car and the engine. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day."
Vandoorne's frustrations are shared with those of Alonso, but he believes that unity among both the team and its drivers can help turn things around: "Every lap we get on track is extremely valuable for us and we are trying to push the team in the right direction for future development.
"We can't sit still and do nothing. We are trying to make the most of it. The last thing we should do is be frustrated about it and do nothing because we won't go forward."
Mason Hawker
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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HEINZ
Posts: 61
He speaks like a future champion! All the luck for him, hope that he gets the car he deserves to be at the front.