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McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier has said the persistent issues the team is facing with its Honda power unit are hurting Fernando Alonso more than his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, as the former is closer to the end of his F1 career.
2017 was widely expected to be a step forward for Honda's F1 programme, after McLaren was able to rise to sixth in the Constructors' Championship by the end of 2016, but both parties have found themselves back at square one so far this year, suffering from a severe lack of both power and reliability. Nevertheless, McLaren was able to enjoy a solid day of running at the Bahrain test on Wednesday - completing 81 laps with no noteworthy problems.
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Vandoorne said afterwards that this marked the best day of the year for the team so far, but the frustration at not being able to show their speed on track remains among the Belgian and the Spaniard after so many relentless setbacks. Of Vandoorne, Boullier said: "If you look session by session he had a lot of issues with his car, and he has never been in a proper position to be able to extract the best of his car.
"We watch data lap by lap, so we can tell you that there were a few times in the first few races when all was working in his car, himself was driving properly. And he was matching Fernando, which is good, or not far from Fernando, at least close enough to show us he is worth putting him in Formula One. But yes, we need a complete weekend with no issues and a good race."
"I would say so far it's worse for Fernando," he added. "Stoffel is new, he's got a lot to learn and he's got long-term commitment and support from McLaren, so he can honestly wait a bit. Of course for a day like Wednesday, it's priceless, you know, but he is learning a lot. It's a lot of laps from him, and not only the laps, we do some back to back so we can feel the car moving from one setup to another, and in terms of experience it's actually 10 times better than the rest."
Mason Hawker
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
C. Sainz jr
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