08/03/2018
NEWS STORY
Clearly following Eric Boullier's mantra that 'it's only testing', Fernando Alonso refuses to be down-heartened by the continuing - and varied - issues that have cost he and his team increasing track-time over the course of the pre-season tests.
Last week it was the weather, combined with errant wheelnuts and an overheating engine. This week, electrics and an oil leak have cost the team further valuable running, the Spaniard losing over six hours yesterday while his crew changed his engine.
However, with Melbourne just two weeks away, the two-time world champion insists he is ready.
"Of course, the programme we had planned today was longer than 50-something laps," he admitted last night, but Stoffel and I faced a couple of issues over the last couple of days and this is part of testing – hopefully now these things won't happen on lap 10 in Melbourne.
"In a way, it's useful learning," he added, "and I'm happy that we're continuing to make the car stronger and stronger. We managed to complete all the important parts of the programme this morning, so the rest of the day was more about long runs and putting in extra mileage, without needing any specific information to send back to the factory.
"I'm not worried about the track time we lost today," he added. "I have one more day in the car before Australia, and I hope we'll be able to do some long runs and check extra things in order to keep discovering more about our new package, but the fundamental questions we needed to answer in winter testing have been answered, so for me the final day is not crucial.
"If we went to Australia tomorrow, I'd feel okay."