Stoffel Vandoorne says the McLaren team received a much-needed boost with a successful day of testing in Bahrain.
The two-day test started with more reliability woes for the team. Test driver Oliver Turvey completed just 17 laps on the Tuesday.
However, the second day was much more successful with Vandoorne taking over and running 81 laps on Wednesday. The Belgian driver said that it was moments like this that filled him with optimism.
“After a difficult couple of weeks, the last day of the Bahrain test was very encouraging, both for me and for the whole team," the 25-year-old explained.
"It was a boost we needed and provided us with a lot of useful information about the direction we are taking the whole package in."
He was certainly feeling much more upbeat about the team's prospects than he had after the Bahrain Grand Prix. Both Vandoorne and his team mate Fernando Alonso retired from the race before the finish.
"We're going to Sochi with a better feeling than we had on Sunday night after a disappointing race," Vandoorne agreed. He also has some personal reasons for looking forward to this weekend's Grand Prix.
"I’ve raced in Sochi before and had good results there, it’s where I clinched the GP2 championship in 2015," he said. "That’s definitely a plus point for me going into the weekend.
"We’ve not been so lucky recently on my side of the garage and I’ve missed quite a lot of valuable mileage, but I hope we can improve that situation this weekend."
Given the chronic problems with the Honda power unit, McLaren will struggle on a circuit that relies on straight-line speed.
"We know we’ll already be slightly on the back-foot heading into the weekend," Vandoorne acknowledged.
"Our focus should definitely be on maximising our track time and working on reliability.
"If we can have a clean weekend from that point of view and no issues with the car, it will give us the best chance to find performance for the race.
"We’ll give it our best shot with the package we have," he added.
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