No 'dramatic' problem insists McLaren
ByAutoSport
Published 19/04/2015 at 20:44 GMT
The energy recovery system fault that prevented Jenson Button from starting the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix is not a "dramatic" problem, according to McLaren racing director Eric Boullier.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The 2009 world champion stopped on track in both Friday free practice sessions and early in qualifying, and was unable to leave the garage to take to the grid.
But Boullier is confident that these troubles are not indicative of a fundamental problem.
"Yes, we missed qualifying and we could not race because the car couldn't be ready, so this in itself is dramatic, but there is no dramatic reason behind it," Boullier told AUTOSPORT.
"I think it was related to the fact that we started with mileage on some components and we suffered some glitches here and there.
"But it's nothing serious, just small problems that forced us to stop the car to check."
Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai admitted that he was not yet certain of the root cause of the problem that prevented Button from racing.
"Right now, we don't know what happened with Jenson's car, but it was an electrical issue, " said Arai.
"I don't know if it is the same situation or not as in P1 [free practice one] but suddenly the electrical power shut down.
"After the warm-up in the garage before the grid, we had some fluctuating data on the electronic control unit and we finally decided we cannot race."
Fernando Alonso finished 11th in the race, matching McLaren's best result of the season, with both driver and team satisfied with the progress being made.
The Spaniard accepted that the car was not fast enough to score points, but while concerned by the reliability problems suffered by his team-mate, he is hoping that things will improve in the next race in Spain in three weeks.
"We were not fast enough to be in the top 10, but we finished the race and got some experience on the car," said Alonso.
"Things seemed to work fine on my side.
"Jenson, sadly, could not start the race so we need to look at many things for Barcelona.
"We have three weeks to increase the performance, to increase the reliability."
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