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Honda is going into yet another race weekend with mixed messages. As McLaren's struggling Japanese supplier debuted an upgraded engine in Belgium recently, boss Yasuhisa Arai said it would be a match for Ferrari's power unit. But Spa-Francorchamps turned out to be one of McLaren-Honda's worst performances of the season.
And now, at least officially, Honda is heading into another high-speed venue, Monza, with low expectations. "Monza is another high-speed track which unfortunately does not suit our package," Arai said in a media statement. "The drivers are on full throttle for most of the lap due to the long straights and fast corners, and since maximum power and minimal drag are key we know we have a big challenge ahead of us this weekend," he added.
The comment about 'minimal drag' is key, with McLaren and Honda now increasingly pointing the finger at the other for the reasons for the dire 2015. In media reports, Arai has been quoted as suggesting Honda's power unit is no longer the worst in pitlane. "Our engine is a bit behind Ferrari," he is quoted by Spain's El Confidencial, "but it is much better than Renault. Mercedes is still far away. We are about 40-50 horse power behind Mercedes, but about 25 ahead of Renault," Arai added. (GMM)
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (10)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Assuming their numbers are correct (this we will have to see in the coming races) and that they can fix their lack of reliability, this might actually be decent progress, judging from how bad their starting pace was. If they can go from horrible to ahead of Renault in shorter time than it took Renault to get this far, next season could get interesting. But can they stay ahead of Renault even when the French actually decide on spending tokens, I wonder.
khasmir
Posts: 893
Not sure I can be so optimistic about Honda and McLaren at this time. Some serious progress needs to be made and shown in race results, and soon. Otherwise this relationship could break down before you can say hottentottententoonstelling ;)
khasmir
Posts: 893
Oops, my mistake, it's hottentottententententoonstelling ;)
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Not really optimistic, but carefully hopeful, and extremely patient. There is a significant difference in their current PU and the sad excuse for a PU they presented in January, not doubt about that. Not exactly expecting them to take giant leaps forwards or anything, but any progress is welcome. Not sure if will break that quickly, as both McLaren and Honda saw this as a testing year and thus they dont count it as representative (Honda does not at least). But I guess I can buy them further time while I fumble with trying to get hottentottententententoonstelling right. ;)
khasmir
Posts: 893
Probably McLaren was expecting to see some results sooner but for sure, for Honda this is just a testing year. Problem is they are not being completely honest about it.
I'm not the biggest McLaren fan but it's sad to see them in this situation.
Oh well, just for no reason: paashaasschaamhaarverzamelaar ;)
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Hahahaha!
khasmir
Posts: 893
I think Arai lost it, something snapped. Where does he get this numbers??? We all saw the results at Spa... Maybe the power unit was not running at 100%?
Maybe it's nothing but notice how Arai speaks about the engine and not the power unit...
In that case the ERS must be really bad, or as button said during race in Spa: they forgot to connect the batteries ;)
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I believe Honda was to make upgrades before Monza, so new numbers could be from that.
khasmir
Posts: 893
I thought the updates were introduced at Spa but maybe not yet at 100% power? But I don't think they are willing to risk their power units on Monza where they don't really have a fighting chance anyway. Will be more interesting to see how they perform at Singapore.
khasmir
Posts: 893
Now I think about it, they swapped 4 power units in Spa (2 for each driver) to have a bigger pool to use for the upcoming races. That must be the upgraded version so it would not make sense to introduce an upgrade at Monza having just swapped all those units.