Honda changes engine development process to increase efficiency

Honda has changed its development and evaluation approach after experiencing correlation issues between its dyno and track evaluations. In 2017, Honda has once again struggled with reliability issues and a lack of performance gains, which has put a strain on its relationship with McLaren. 

The new process that Honda will use means that it will conduct less dyno testing in order to evaluate new components. Yusuke Hasegawa of Honda believes that this will allow the Japanese engine supplier to have a more efficient development programme. 

 "We're not too much insisting on mono-cylinder [dyno] development. We can check factors or elements or many concepts with the mono-cylinder [block] but we now understand we need to check with the V6 to finalise our specification," Hasegawa told Motorsport.com after confirming that Honda is changing its way of development. 

"So we are no longer relying too much on the mono-cylinder results. As a reference, the mono cylinder test is important but to find the performance, we need to check the V6 results," he added.

One of Honda's key failures in 2017 has again been its MGU-H power element, although an update at Silverstone may have resolved part of the issue:  "We are about to solve that [MGU-H] issue, we just need to confirm on the circuit," said Hasegawa. "But the MGU-H specification we have introduced includes solutions for the problem so I believe it's OK," he concluded. 

Chris Soulsby