McLaren has confirmed that a water pressure problem was to blame for Stoffel Vandoorne failing to start the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Belgian driver had qualified in 17th place and was gearing up for the race on the grid when an issue was discovered on his car.
It was pushed back to the pits, with McLaren announcing shortly after that Vandoorne would not be making the race start.
He was disappointed and frustrated with the problems, particularly after a stressful Friday of practice where his car suffered two MGU-H failures.
“It’s a real shame that we weren’t even able to start the race,” he said. “The team discovered a water-pressure issue on the way to the grid.
“It’s disappointing, obviously, that we come all the way here and can’t even start the race. We knew from the beginning of the season that the situation we were in was going to be difficult.
“We’ll get on top of these issues, and I’m confident that I can do a good job when everything comes together.
“We’re going through a hard time – it’s not fun for us to go through this – but this is what it is at the moment, and shows that.
“It’s frustrating when you do all the preparation work, put in so much effort, we drivers train a lot, and then not being able to start is a shame.
“It’s been an extremely difficult weekend for me, having two failures on Friday in FP1 and FP2, and now in the race: it’s obviously very disappointing.
“But I’ll keep my head down, I’ll work hard with the team, and I’m sure there will be some improvements at some point.
“When they will be, it’s difficult to say, but I’m confident that they’ll come. We’ve lost quite a bit of mileage so it’s definitely not an ideal situation, and we need to make a good step forward soon.”
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