F1 Testing Analysis: The Donkey and his Driver

Once upon a time, a donkey was being driven along a road leading down a mountain side. Tired of the long journey, the donkey realised he could see his destination at the foot of the mountain, and got into his head that the quickest way to get there would be by jumping over the edge of the nearest cliff.

Just as the donkey was about to jump over the cliff, his driver grabbed his tail and tried to pull him back to keep him on the road. The donkey refused to be dragged back, though, pulling and pulling away.

“Very well,” said the driver. “Go your way, you wilful beast, and see where it leads you.”

The driver let go, and with that, the donkey tumbled down the mountainside.

The above is one version of Aesop’s fable entitled “The Donkey and his Driver” (also known as 'The Ass and his Master'), a story that has been tweaked across various renditions since first being told in Ancient Greece. In short, the grass is not always greener…

Similar thoughts were felt through the paddock this afternoon when, for the third time today, the McLaren MCL33 car driven by Stoffel Vandoorne came to a halt on-track.

For all of the haranguing Honda was subjected to last year; for all of the ways in which the partnership with McLaren soured so dramatically; for all of the on-track struggles, Fernando Alonso moans and sniping comments at the Japanese manufacturer - we were back to a familiar sight of the orange car on the back of a loading truck.

Vandoorne hit trouble with his very first lap of the day, suffering an electrical issue on his car that caused him to come to a halt while halfway down the pit lane after completing an installation run. The McLaren mechanics were able to run down and give the Belgian a push back into the garage, avoiding any red flag stoppage, but it was nevertheless a concerning start for the team.

Vandoorne returned to the track a short while later, but could complete just four laps in total before he came to a halt again, this time exiting Turn 16 just before the start/finish line. Once again, an electrical issue was the cause, with McLaren reporting a “power shutdown meaning we lost data. The team are investigating, but we’ll be back out as soon as we can.”

After sneaking in another three laps just before lunch behind the Virtual Safety Car, Vandoorne was out early in the afternoon session to try and rack up some mileage for McLaren and go some way to making up for the lost time last week - only for more problems to emerge.

A hydraulic issue forced Vandoorne to park up at the side of the track with two hours left in the day, bringing McLaren’s running to an early end.

McLaren-Renault’s lap count after the first five days of testing in Barcelona in 2018 is 298.

McLaren-Honda’s lap count after the first five days of testing in Barcelona in 2017 was 288.

Even watching the McLaren out on-track, it doesn’t have the kind of confidence you can see in the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull cars. As observed following a spell at Turn 10, Vandoorne wasn’t able to hit the same line at the corner lap after lap unlike many of the front-runners. On exiting the corner, the car looked really twitchy.

The paddock feeling is that McLaren might not be set for the giant step forward it so craved simply by changing the power unit. To quote one veteran journalist: "They've forgotten how to race."

Racing director Eric Boullier brushed off the issues, though, instead welcoming them in order to prepare for the new F1 season.

"Today wasn’t the day we had hoped for on track, but, despite this, we aren’t overly concerned about the issues that we’ve faced today," he said.

“It’s obviously not the productive day we had planned, but the problems – a battery issue and a hydraulic leak – are the types of niggles that we almost hope and expect to face during testing, in order to prepare us properly for the season ahead.

“We are here to test, and today is what sometimes happens in testing. It’s not ideal, and we would have liked more track time, but we’re working on it, we’re learning from it, and we’ll return to the track tomorrow armed with more information."

Did McLaren's struggles leave some smug faces for Honda? Not entirely. Toro Rosso didn’t have a straightforward day as it failed to get out on-track in the afternoon, with Pierre Gasly having managed 54 laps through the morning. However, this lack of running was due to an issue with the braking system, as confirmed by Gasly at the end of the day.

“This morning went super-well, but this afternoon a small issue on the brake system cost us quite a lot of time because we didn’t run at all in the afternoon,” Gasly explained.

“It was a bit of a shame, but hopefully we can sort everything out for the next three days.”

Honda’s perfect start to life with Toro Rosso last week saw it shoot to the top of the mileage charts, and while things may have been more difficult today, the signs are still encouraging.

We’re yet to see the Toro Rosso be pushed at full tilt, so it is perhaps too early to make a firm judgement. But the noises coming out of the team are positive all the same.

“So far it’s been really good,” Gasly said. “In terms of reliability, we didn’t have one single issue. This is really positive.

“In terms of performance, it’s too early to say because we didn’t really run in qualifying mode, so it’s difficult to compare with what we had last year.

“But at the moment, the only thing we need is to have a reliable engine and to test as much as we can before Melbourne. We are really happy so far.”

Nevertheless, there was a cheeky post from the Toro Rosso Twitter account at the very start of the day, making the kind of typo that everyone makes from time to time, right?

All systems Woking, let’s do this #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/wHUATz1jtw

— Toro Rosso (@ToroRosso) March 6, 2018

It may still be early days to cast proper judgement on McLaren’s 2018 season. But comparisons are there to be drawn with last year’s struggles already.

So what is the closing moral of the fable that we started with?

“They who will not listen to reason but stubbornly go their own way against the friendly advice of those who are wiser than they, are on the road to misfortune.”

Time will tell if that rings true for McLaren in 2018.