Boullier "surprised" by early gremlins

McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier has admitted that the problems that the team have encountered on day one of testing have come as surprise to him.

Alonso debuted the MCL32 today but progress was halted after an installation lap when it emerged that the car had an oil system issue. The Spaniard was caged in the garage until an engine change was complete and he was sent on his way.

Boullier finds it strange however, as during a filming day yesterday there was no real issues with the car.

"We have an oil system problem, and that's all that we know now; Honda are investigating what is going on and I guess they will tell us what happened," he said.

"It's disappointing because yesterday we had a filming day, we did 100km, and more or less everything went right, so this morning it came as a little bit of a surprise to have a problem.

"It was a filming day, so we can't do anything much with the car. What I can tell you is what the drivers reported, which is that there is definitely more downforce, definitely more grip, but Honda's engine was running in a safe mode, so there wasn't much to compare. We could see a difference in high speed corners, for example, that the car was much faster, but you can't investigate much."

Fergal Walsh