Jensen: McLaren MCL-HY “Fundamentals Are Right”

McLaren Hypercar driver Mikkel Jensen believes the “fundamentals are right” and that the initial feeling of the MCL-HY is “great” after initial on-track testing of the new car.

The MCL-HY was rolled out at Varano at the beginning of May for an initial shakedown before testing subsequently began in earnest at Imola and Jensen said there were some encouraging signs from the car that is due to make its FIA World Endurance Championship debut next year.

Jensen is one of two drivers so far announced as racing the car, Porsche stalwart Laurens Vanthoor being the other, while they have been joined in the initial testing program by United Autosports regular Ben Hanley and McLaren Driver Development Program members Gregoire Saucy and Richard Verschoor.

Although the testing has not been trouble-free, Jensen believes McLaren is on the right track in what he describes as a “very important” phase.

“The team has done great work behind the scenes for so long, even before I joined the project,” he told Sportscar365.

“I feel like the fundamentals are right and we’ve done a good job — the car feels good.

“Now we have to continue and develop as much as we can because whatever we can get out of the development phase now, it’s going to give us a better chance of success in the future.

“You reach surprises along the journey all the time so it’s just about trying to learn as much as possible from everything you find on the car, from everything you feel, because from now until the homologation is the most important part of the program because, after that, we’re quite limited in whatever we can do with the car.”

In terms of those surprises, Jensen would not go into detail but added: “There’s a lot of things always catching you out in testing.

“You test for a reason to find the mistakes on the car, which you want to improve and this is why you’re testing.

“You just hope these issues are easily solvable and are not something that stops you from testing for several days.”

The former Peugeot racer also would not be drawn on comparisons between the McLaren and the Hypercar machinery he has driven in the past, merely stating that the MCL-HY “obviously feels different” with it being a LMDh-based prototype rather than an LMH car like the Peugeot 9X8.

Unlike fellow 2027 newcomer Ford, which is not due to commence on-track testing until the beginning of August, Jensen feels that starting the testing early brings many benefits to McLaren.

“I think it’s one of the earlier projects to hit the track so it’s also giving us more time, more confidence to not be too stressed out that we need to get everything fixed in a short time, which I’ve seen in the past,” explained Jensen, who had also been involved in the early days of the Peugeot’s development.

“We’re more relaxed and can be a bit more chilled with which areas we need to improve first, so it’s not like a basket full of issues that just need to be fixed in one day because we have time.”

McLaren Endurance Racing executive director James Barclay had previously outlined how a detailed testing program had already been created for the MCL-HY, describing there being “a long road ahead.”