The 2020 F1 campaign is all set to kick-off on the 5th of July in Austria. Teams and drivers will be looking to shake off the pre-season rust, by testing older versions of the cars they’ll be piloting soon. Mercedes were the first to announce the testing of the W09 at Silverstone, in the coming week. They were followed by Ferrari, who announced that they’ll be testing their 2018 car at Fiorano soon. However, unfortunately, McLaren can’t do the same.

Mclaren F1 chief says that they can’t use the 2018 spec car because it has a different powertrain

Mclaren chief, Andrew Seidl was interviewed by Sky Sports. He gave the reason, as to why McLaren can’t follow suit and conduct tests like Mercedes or Ferrari. Seidl said, “On the drivers’ side we don’t have this possibility of having a car that is two years old and we could operate, because of all the powertrain switches we had here in recent years.”

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However, that doesn’t mean that McLaren’s drivers have been sitting idle. Seidl said, “As you have seen already, Lando was doing some karting and F3 testing. We’re looking into the second thing also now with Carlos to have the drivers ready. Also, we will do some simulator work with them.”

Seidl said that he’s confident for the upcoming season and that while no testing has been possible for the drivers, Mclaren continues to work on their car. He said, “We are preparing the cars at the moment. we are trying to go through the procedures and processes in the garage for these new circumstances with all the social distancing. I’m happy with the steps we are taking here as a team. I think with what we know now, the process that has been outlined by the FIA and Formula 1 in terms of how we actually execute the race weekend in Austria.”

“It’s simply about focusing on preparations for the next weeks. Hopefully, we have a good start in Austria.” He concluded.