9
The McLaren-Honda partnership is enduring another miserable season in 2017 thanks to the continued chronic lack of reliability and power offered by its engine, but despite the constant decline in results and race finishes the Japanese manufacturer has no plans to radically change its power unit design for next year.
This revelation comes from Yusuke Hasegawa, the head of Honda's F1 project, who has insisted that he still believes its engine can be capable of delivering similar power to those of the two leaders of the sport, Mercedes and Ferrari: "We introduced a new power unit concept this year, so I would almost call this Year One again," Hasegawa said on Honda's website.
"But our aim is to develop the 2017 concept into the 2018 season and hopefully 2019 as well. So the engine weight, centre of gravity and the combustion concept are all going in the same direction as the other three engine manufacturers. It was good for us to do that. We can modify the specification of some of these parts to catch up with the other three engine manufacturers.
"Last year the engine concept was completely different, so with minor modifications we could not duplicate the same type of performance. That's why we really needed to change the whole engine concept this year."
Hasegawa later said that whilst there will be no major alterations to the 2018 engine, Honda will still continue to develop from a decent foundation: "We don't stop developing, we need to keep updating. Of course the performance and results are the most important things but it's all learning for the future too.
"Compared to last year we needed to modify the engine concept, but next year we will keep the same concept. It's good that we can use the same concept because this year's development and improvement is directly connected to next year. So that means we don't need to stop the current development, and from that point of view we have already started next year's design."
Mason Hawker
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
156 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (9)
Login to replyWolfgang
Posts: 313
hm. we´ll see.. To me it then looks like they are in 2019 there where Renault has been in 2014..
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Right thing to do
mbmwe36
Posts: 533
I think that's the right decision. It does look like it's going in the right direction for them, albeit slowly. I'm cautiously optimistic about their 2018 performance at this point. I don't think they'll catch Mercedes or Ferrari. But I could see them coming reasonably close.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Yeah, Im of the same opinion. It certainly is the right decision to have the same base PU. Most other engine suppliers are going the same route, so it seems to be the way to go for the next year. What worries me is how the "it wont be a big update" line can be interpreted. Will it not be a big increase in performance, or will it not be a big difference in terms of parts? Honda need to do what they did between 2015 and 2016, but they need to do it better this time.
mbmwe36
Posts: 533
I think it is more spin than anything else. I think it's to curb expectations without outright saying it. Honda's mouth has written cheques that their a** can't cash more than a few times already.
It looks like they are starting to find some power, but lacks reliability. That's not altogether bad, as it is easier to make a powerful engine reliable, than the other way around - theoretically anyway.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Yup, though to be fair, Arai were kind enough to sign those cheques. Hasegawa has, fortunately, been a bit more modest. I agree that this can be them trying to not raise optimism too high. It certainly seem like they are working hard to solve their issues. I also respect that they, unlike Renault, didnt abandon this year's PU, but try to build on it now to benefit from it next year. And I hope it will pay off. If McLaren manages to build a similarly good car next year, and Honda even manage to get on par with Renault, that could be enough for McLaren to jump into the top 6 or even top 4.
Not necessarily, but a powerful but unreliable engine migth scrap up decent points every now and then, at least until you use up all the parts, whereas a reliable but weak engine will scrap on in the back, hoping to get into tenth every now and then. However I think the current regulations benefit a reliable engine more: Good reliability means that you can switch everything on to 100% more often, so you get more out of the engine, and might even survive without engine parts penalties. They certainly will benefit reliability more should we only have 3 penalty free parts ( a dreadful move in my opinion).
boudy
Posts: 1,168
So on other sources ... Honda imply that part of the issue are the vibrations caused by a lack of stability inhered of the mcLaren chassis?
I wonder if this Engine will perform better in a chassis.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Sauiber chassis
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Well yes it did apparently cause or worsen some of the vibrations, but McLaren supposedly fixed the issue on their end. Im aware some of the 2015 woes were caused by bad engine integration into the chassis, but I doubt they would make that mistake twice.