Kevin Magnussen admits McLaren’s expectations are “quite low” ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
McLaren was blighted by reliability issues throughout pre-season testing as it struggled with its new Honda power unit. Magnussen himself is also only driving due to a crash for Fernando Alonso during the second test, which saw the Spaniard hospitalised for three days and ruled out of the opening round of the season.
Asked how he would describe McLaren’s expectations ahead of the first race, Magnussen replied: “I would say quite low.
“We’re struggling obviously with reliability, making the car run for a long time. But this is a new start for McLaren, a new start in many ways and I think it’s going to take time. But I think it’s the right direction that the team has chosen to go and I think it has a bright future ahead. I think it’s going to take time but I’m sure they’ll get there.”
Having only completed 39 laps during one day of pre-season testing this year, Magnussen says he doesn’t think he’ll struggle to get up to speed.
“I didn’t get as many laps as I thought I’d get but I would get a maximum 150 laps in a day if everything runs perfectly. I got nearly 40 laps and I think all of those were low fuel, so at least I’m pretty prepared for that.
“I haven’t felt the car on high fuel yet so that will be interesting to see how that feels. But you know I’ve driven race cars before, it’s not a completely different thing. It's a different car but I think it should be OK.”
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