McLaren have hit back at Christian Horner’s claim their Electronic Control Unit was to blame for Mark Webber’s poor start in the Australian Grand Prix.
Webber dropped five places as he struggled to get off the line in yesterday’s race.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner blamed a fault on the Electronic Control Unit for the problem. The ECU is a standard part used by all the teams and manufactured by McLaren Electronic Systems.
“Mark’s problems were hugely frustrating because it was an ECU issue, said Horner after the race. “You need to ask McLaren why the ECU didn’t work and why it messed up his preparation because he was blind and had no telemetry.”
“It is something they need to get on top of because it caused a lot of issues during testing.”
However MES managing director Peter van Manen denied the fault originated with the ECU:
“There was an issue with Mark Webber’s data system in the garage during the formation lap. The ECU on the car was fine,” he said.
“We regret any disruption caused to Mark’s preparations for the start of the race and will continue to work with the team to prevent any recurrence.”
Webber’s slow getaway dropped him from second to seventh immediately, and he was only able to recover to sixth by the end of the race. Watch his start from onboard the car in this video:
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Reuters
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