McLaren: Brake duct fix is "interim solution" at Bahrain GP

The team suffered with brake cooling issues throughout last week’s Bahrain pre-season test and its programme was badly disrupted, with Lando Norris unable to complete long runs.

Although new parts were introduced on the final day of the test, the team has needed to rush a fresh design through the manufacturing process at the factory for the first race of the season. However, it is set to be replaced by a further new version.

“Obviously brake ducts are quite, let's say, complex parts if you look at the entire F1 car,” said Seidl when asked by Autosport about its brake duct design changes.

“So it was a race against time in order to bring, I will call it an interim solution, to here. It’s definitely not the final ideal solution.

“But we did what we could the factory was flat out in the last seven, eight days in order to provide us with the solutions we have on the cars now, which we have to evaluate now in FP1 and FP2.

“Hopefully, it allows us then to get back to normal running, to get back into our rhythm as well, which we lost a bit during the last test. And then we take it from there.”

McLaren MCL36

Photo by: Erik Junius

Seidl believes the team has done the best possible job in the short time it had available between the test and the start of practice for the Bahrain GP.

“I think the most important thing was to understand as quickly as possible last week where the issue was. I think the issue has been identified quite quickly within the team. And now it's about correcting it,” he said.

“As I said before, we have an interim solution available now for here. So we got to the car what was possible with the time that was available and I'm confident that we the steps we have in place now, also then moving forward, that the topic is solved.”

Asked about the potential performance cost of the switch from the original design he said: “We still need to quantify now once we go running on track how we actually can run this this interim solution. So too early to judge."

Norris conceded that the drivers may still have to “manage many things” in Sunday’s race, including keeping temperatures under control.

“The team's done an excellent job in trying to get as many parts as possible, things to fix those issues and the problems,” he said. “But to a certain extent, we don't know how well they're going to work.

“And we literally have to put them on the car and go out and drive with them for the first time to understand just how good they are. And whether it's enough or too much and obviously, preferably on the side of too much.

“And we can kind of come back and make modifications from there. But it could be a chance of either. It could be a perfect race when there were no issues. And of course, that's an ideal world. And it could be a race where we have to still manage many things.”