Stoffel Vandoorne was keen to take the positives from a challenging first test after McLaren recovered from a difficult start to end the week with solid mileage under its belt.
Niggling issues with Honda’s revised power unit limited the team’s running over the first two days, with neither driver able to surpass a half century of laps.
The team’s early woes prompted talk of a crisis, but the last two days of action yielded more positive results for the Woking outfit with Vandoorne and Alonso racking up a total of 139 much-needed laps.
The Belgian, preparing for his first year in Formula 1, praised the team for their recovery and insists his first outings at the wheel of the MCL-32 were fruitful.
“I’m really pleased both Fernando and I were able to spend a full day in the car with no major issues,” he said.
“We got a good amount of valuable mileage under our belt and completed our scheduled run plans on both days.
“We’ve tried a lot of different things, worked on various set-ups, and we’re learning a lot about the handling and characteristics of the car with every lap, which has been very useful for me.
“We had a difficult start to the week, but I want to say thank you to the team for all their hard work over the past four days.
“We’ve managed a solid couple of days’ running and made good progress, and I’m really proud of the team effort to ensure we could make the most of our track time.”
Honda boss Yusuke Hasegawa, however, was less optimistic and expressed his concern that the issues which have arisen will not be eradicated before the start of the season.
“The second day we had a mechanical issue and we still don’t know the root cause of the problem,” Hasegawa conceded. “This is more fundamental and more serious I think. We need to find out what was causing the issue.”
Asked if these problems will hamper McLaren in the early rounds, he said: “The oil tank [which was an issue on Day One] definitely not… the mechanical issue, I don’t know yet whether to be confident about that, but of course I worry about that.”
According to reports, Honda could introduce a new power unit for the second test, which gets underway on Tuesday.
