Lando Norris expressed frustration as two reliability issues overshadowed him setting the best time on Day 1 of the second Formula 1 test.
The Briton suffered a hydraulics problem which forced him to pull off track at Turn 3 in the morning before pulling off again on the very next run after posting the 1m17.709s which saw him finish fastest.
As a result, while a total of 80 laps was still pretty solid, the rookie felt more could have been achieved with the MCL34.
“On the whole today was a good day, although we didn’t get to do quite as much running as we wanted,” he told McLaren’s official website.
“We’ve improved the car slightly since last week, especially on the longer runs, so we’re going in the right direction, which is positive. It’s important that we keep doing that.
“Overall, I’m feeling more prepared,” he added. “I now have one last session in the car on Thursday, to finalise everything before Australia.”
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There have been signs in pre-season that McLaren is ready to make some progress after a lacklustre 2018, with the reliability issues seen today and in previous years kept to a minimum.
However, when asked for a competitive prediction, Carlos Sainz was only prepared to concede his team are not fastest.
“I would say we are behind Ferrari,” he told Mundo Deportiva in a pretty safe bet. “We are already getting more serious, but we do not know where we are.
“Last year all of the average grid teams were a tenth or two (apart) but when you arrive at the tests, you see that there is maybe half a second difference…
“You know that by removing 10kg from the car or setting the qualification mode or putting the soft or hard tyre you gain tenths or seconds, you can create a series of variables that are difficult.
“We are going to work on the car, which has room to develop. I do not know how long it will take us to get where we want but at least we started,” the Spaniard concluded.
