McLaren’s pre-season troubles are an expected consequence of the extreme design philosophy used by designer Peter Prodromou according to Ron Dennis.
The MP4-30 has been described as the first “size-zero” car by Dennis, because the rear is tighly packaged around Honda’s power unit and the cars cooling systems, giving it one of the most pronounced ‘coke-bottle’ designs on the grid.
Dennis has also described it as a “masterpiece” and has high expectations for the car once they and Honda have overcome the issues which plagued them in Jerez.
“In developing the MP4-30 we took a calculated risk,” he told Corriere dello Sport. “But we know exactly what we have done and what we can achieve in the future.
“The layout of the car is extremely compact and first we have to deal with the consequences of that choice,” he explained.
Fernando Alonso recently stated that he wouldn’t set himself a target for the season until the third race of the year, because he simply doesn’t know where they stand yet and it will take a few races to see the full potential of the new car.
Dennis agrees with his driver: “I think we will only fully understand the car after three races, but we are all optimistic and believe that we will be successful.
“But we have obtained a very high level with this car, and I have to thank Peter Prodromou for creating this masterpiece.”