Whilst Renault’s issues have been the talking point of the day in Jerez, the first sight of the McLaren MP4-29 has also caused a stir.
Whilst test times give a relatively inaccurate view of the competitive order, McLaren did manage to post the quickest time of the day, despite having missed day one of testing.
In addition, the rear of the car has caught the attention of the other teams. Several members of Red Bull and Mercedes were seen hanging around McLaren’s garage on Wednesday in the hope of catching a glimpse of the car.
Even Ferrari’s technical director, James Allison, admitted the design concept at the rear, which features ‘chunky’ wishbones which interact with the exhaust gases, were of interest.
“I haven’t seen it in the flesh,” he said, “all I’ve seen are some blurry pictures, but I would like to know more about it because it does interest me.”
Meanwhile Jenson Button only had positive news to report after his first day behind the wheel.
“The power of the engine is nice,” he said. “It’s very torquey, it feels like the most powerful engine I’ve driven. It obviously isn’t in terms of outright power, but as a racing driver you feel the torque and power at the low speed and at 300 km/h you don’t really feel the difference.
“It’s coming out of the corners when you have so much torque that it’s exciting,” he added. “There’s no horrible issues with the car or engine.”
