McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe has said that the pre-season was the "worst I've experienced in 20 years at McLaren".
Having delayed its car until the second winter test, McLaren's new MP4-26 appeared to be both slow and unreliable as the team struggled to get a complex exhaust system to work. Having now made huge progress with Lewis Hamilton winning the Chinese Grand Prix, Lowe compared the start of this year to the 2009 season, when McLaren were two seconds off the pace and Hamilton was unable to defend his drivers' title.
"This was even worse, because then [2009] the problem was merely performance," Lowe said. "[This year] at the final test [in Barcelona] the new items didn't work and the car was unreliable."
Lowe said that team principal Martin Whitmarsh requested that the team reverted to a more simple exhaust design similar to that of Red Bull, but having yet to test the solution he admitted it gave the team a nervy start to the season.
"After the first practice session in Australia I was hugely relieved," Lowe said.
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