Breaking news
Formula 1 Barcelona pre-season testing II
Honda forced to replace Vandoorne's engine after electrical issue
Honda's troubles in Formula 1 continued on Tuesday when it suffered yet another engine problem on the opening day of the final pre-season test.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Mar 7, 2017, 12:49 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Japanese car manufacturer had been eager to bounce back from a troubled first week with its new engine, but it did not get the start that it had hoped for.
During the morning running, an electrical issue with the latest power unit confined Stoffel Vandoorne to the garage after 34 laps.
A decision was taken for the engine to be changed, and a fresh power unit to be fitted for the afternoon. This will also be the same specification as last week.
Honda said in a statement: "We detected an electrical issue with the PU (power unit) in Stoffel's car. In the interest of maximising track time, we opted to replace it and investigate the issue further once the PU is out of the car.
"The PU we are using today is the same spec as the PU run last week at test one."
McLaren frustrations
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier admitted that the latest problem was another blow to the team, which is now lacking mileage.
"It's frustrating for everybody," he said on a Facebook video. "When you don't have a lot of days of testing you want to make the most of it. It's frustrating for Stoffel and for us as well."
He added: "The less we run, the less we learn the cars and the more we run behind on our development programme."
The electrical problem today comes after a failure on the second day of last week's test.
Honda's investigations into that problem have been ongoing back at its Japanese Sakura headquarters, and experiments were due to take place this week to try to get a better understanding of the situation.
The latest reliability drama comes with just three days of F1 testing remaining prior to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Barcelona F1 test: Massa puts Williams top on first morning
Next article Revealed: Reasons behind latest Mercedes F1 aero changes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
McLaren
Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
20 h
Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Latest news
‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
37 min
‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore
Pedro Acosta proposes new idea for monitoring tyre pressure in MotoGP
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 1 h
Pedro Acosta proposes new idea for monitoring tyre pressure in MotoGP
“Just a disaster” – How Isack Hadjar’s nightmare Singapore F1 weekend unfolded
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
1 h
“Just a disaster” – How Isack Hadjar’s nightmare Singapore F1 weekend unfolded
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe