24/06/2018
NEWS STORY
The claim that its predecessor was the best chassis out there has come back to bite McLaren in the wake of a disastrous qualifying session in France.
Failing to get either car into Q2, was the latest calamity in a week which has seen the Woking team under attack from the media and (seemingly) within.
While 'Freddo-gate' - which follows claims that employees are being rewarded for their efforts with 25p chocolate bars - was the source of much paddock mirth on Friday, it is the latest episode in the story of a team that appears to some to be imploding.
Chocolate bars don't matter, but dumping Honda and its money only to find that the results with Renault are little better - an engine that is powering Red Bull to wins - is a dreadful state of affairs.
Now, in a week in which former boss Martin Whitmarsh has expressed his fears for the team and insiders talk of a "toxic" atmosphere in Woking and "clueless" management, Zak Brown reveals that the team is unable to trace the root cause of its aero issues in the windtunnel.
"I think we have identified the areas in which we have a problem, or problems," he said. "It's in aerodynamics. It's something that doesn't show up in the wind tunnel."
The windtunnel is that of Toyota's in Cologne, one used successfully by a number of rival F1 teams.
"We can't try to solve it in the wind tunnel because we can't replicate the issue or issues," he admitted. "It's not a wind tunnel issue. What we've identified as the areas of weakness just simply doesn't show up in a wind tunnel.
"Unfortunately we're having to test and experiment at the race track," he admitted, "and while most other teams are now on their development path, their base programme is working for them, we're having to identify and work to solve these issues."
Nonetheless, Eric Boullier insists the team must not abandon development of the MCL33 in order to focus on the 2019 car.
Admitting that the root cause has to be found "so it doesn't carry over to next year", Brown added: "We have identified the general area of issues, so we know what we're chasing. What we don't obviously have yet is the solution in place."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Paul Ricard, here.