Following Tuesday’s non-running, the decision was taken yesterday to extend Jenson’s seat-time into Thursday morning, effectively equally splitting each driver’s time with the car.
Jenson continued the evaluative work he began yesterday, further drilling down into the detail as he continues to understand and refine MP4-29.
After lunch, Kevin took over for his first run in the car.
The team had devised a programme that gave him maximum time in the cockpit. This meant focusing on a series of longer runs – in order to best familiarise him with the car and its systems.
Additionally, he conducted some shorter runs at the end of the day, punctuating them with a series of practice starts in the pitlane, and some practice pitstops.
Kevin said:
“This was a big day for me. I had butterflies in my stomach and had trouble sleeping last night – I’m a rookie, and I was just excited to get in the car. Equally, however, this doesn’t feel like my first day at work: I know everybody at McLaren, so I really felt at home.
“Happily, everything worked as it should, and the car felt good. I’m pretty pleased with our reliability – to have done as many laps as I did in just half a day was pretty positive.
“I’m not taking too much from the fact that I set the fastest time – I was pushing, but it wasn’t a balls-to-the-wall lap. We wanted to get good data and learn about the car, so I think everyone is pushing out there.
“Even so, I still think we can improve the car this week. And the most important thing is to understand how to improve things when we go away from here. I think we have a good idea of the direction to take.”
While Kevin satisfyingly ended the day fastest overall, more pleasing was the fact that the car – in the hands of both drivers – completed a total of 92 laps, more than any other team, thus underlining the team’s pre-season aim to focus on reliability over performance during these crucial winter test sessions