Helmut Marko: "Alonso made Honda look bad"
- Published on 29 Jan 2018 12:02
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- By: Rob Veenstra
Dr Helmut Marko says Red Bull's new plan for 2018 is still on track. Recently, Marko said the team had learned from 2017, when it started with a car off Mercedes and Ferrari's pace.
"Based on our experience last year, we gave the engineers a deadline," he now explains to Auto Motor und Sport. "There is no worrying this time about whether we can make it to the first test."
Quietly, Marko is optimistic about the RB14 car amid whispers from France that Renault has got the reliability problems of its engine under control. But there are no public goals from Red Bull, with Marko saying only: "Let us surprise. We have optimal values, but we do every year," he said.
Another positive factor is the strong involvement of Adrian Newey, although Marko admits the famous designer is not involved "100 per cent". As for the future, Red Bull is reportedly looking beyond 2018 with Renault and considering joining sister team Toro Rosso in using Honda power.
"Honda is very active and have already found something," Marko said. "Perhaps they will manage to be on Renault's level with their second engine (specification). "Honda had to compromise because of the McLaren chassis and were not able to develop freely. And Alonso did everything he could to make the engine look bad," he added.
For 2018, Marko expects Mercedes to dominate again. "The worst thing is their qualifying mode, because you cannot overtake on most tracks," he said. (GMM)
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Replies (14)
Login to replyajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Typical Helmut bull***t. Now it's McLaren's fault Honda's PU sucked. We'll see how Toro Rosso goes... I expect Honda to be the worst engine on the grid. Maybe by a smaller margin than in 2017, but worst nevertheless
FatMike
Posts: 153
There is always a worst engine on the grid. Extrapolating from next year into this year will probably show no change in the ranks. Your comment, when it comes to that, is hardly prophetical
Kean
Posts: 692
Exactly, he's got some nerve blaming Honda's incapability on McLaren and Alonso. The Honda PU sucked, plain and simple. Remember Quali in Spain? The way I see it, Alonso was the one that made the McLaren-Honda look reasonably competitive.
Rindtchamp
Posts: 304
He doesn't half spout a load of crap.
reg
Posts: 162
So Fernado, deliberately went slowly and persuaded his team-mate to go 1 1/2 seconds even more slowly, just so he could slag-off Honda, really - what utter twaddle!
krommenaas
Posts: 155
1.5 seconds? The average qualifying difference between them was 0.23s, despite Vandoorne not getting the newest parts in some races.
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
"Alonso did everything he could to make the engine look bad". Alonso could slap a defamation case. ;) whining doesn't give wings Marko!
Madmaz
Posts: 14
I’m going to give Marko the benefit of the doubt here. I firmly believe McLaren’s “size zero” requirement was the lynchpin to the entire 3 year debacle. It was an ill conceived strategy from McLaren that had Honda on their back foot from day one. Especially when that token system was in place effectively tying their arms behind backs. Clearly McLaren have finally abandoned this philosophy since the Renault is a bigger PU. I’m interested to see how 2018 pans out.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
I get your point, but Honda had 3 years to figure it out, and the rate of improvement was not consistent, or even trending upward most of those 3 years. I get the hate for McLaren culture, but this is Honda 100%
NSBiker
Posts: 18
If I'm not mistaken, effectively Honda had 4 years to develop the Power Unit (it isn't just the engine). They didn't run in any races the first year as they held off, needing time to get their stuff together.
kngrthr
Posts: 203
"Alonso made Honda look bad"
i bet thats the easiest job he ever had
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
And there goes Marko's reasonable day of the month. Honda need to take blame for their failure, thats true and wellestablished. However *shrimp intensifies*, McLaren isnt blameless. The raw amount of compromises Honda had to do to comply with McLaren's size zero concept was suboptimal at best. "but they failed to fix it in 3 years" I hesr you shout. I'd like to correct you on that though, dear lynchmob, since they were locked from development and had no tokens during much of 2015. Doing R&D is fine and all, but there wasnt much they could do without tokens, were there? Having Arai on board wasnt exactly wise of Honda, but neither were McLaren's serial overpromising. And the same goes for Alonso, boasting about how good the engine looks only to later spout "GP2 Engine".
As for 3 horrible years.... 2. 2 bad years. 6th in 2016 isnt what I'd call horrible, especially when the car was equally bad.
I look forward to see what RB can take from this.
Bhurt
Posts: 320
Pretty obvious he's referring to Alonso's numerous outbursts of unprofessionalism. Very entertaining as they were, they weren't professional.
Marko also is very clear about the fact that the Honda engine is currently the worst one on the grid by saying "Perhaps they will manage to be on Renault's level..."
Some of you should perhaps read what he actually says before jumping on him. Everything he said in this article is spot on.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Agreed.