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Honda worried about performance gap to other teams

Published on 11 Mar 2017 12:16
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By: Fergal Walsh

Honda ha admitted that they are worried about the performance gap to the other teams ahead of the fast approaching 2017 Formula 1 season.

McLaren suffered a poor winter test, as their power unit supplier Honda turned out to not only be unreliable, but also well down on power. The Japanese manufacturer announced at the start of the year that their power unit was risky, as they majorly re-developed the engine.

When asked by Racer.com if there were any potential problems Honda had been expecting, head of its F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa replied: "Of course not.

"Of course we knew the performance level but we didn't know the level of the other teams, so from a comparison point of view we are a little bit scared of the situation and it's too optimistic for us to expect a very good result in Melbourne. But from a trouble point of view, of course I didn't expect such a wide variety of problems that we suffered."

Hasegawa says that the build up to the test showed no signs of troubles, as McLaren completed a filming day before the official test.

"No, not at all. Everything that has happened has not been seen on the dyno, I believe. No. Especially the day two issue and this week's day one issue, we didn't expect such a problem."

"Of course it is disappointing but to me it is good that we can find out the issues before Melbourne. Of course it is bad for testing and to disturb the running time."

However, Hasegawa believes that the reliability will improve before Melbourne, which will allow them to exploit more from the power unit.

"Of course we also improved our engine performance level; however, it looks like the PU performance improvement of the others is better and higher than us. We may even be further back, so that is very disappointing.

"From the settings or a setting point of view we may have some things we can do in these two weeks. In the next two weeks we will try to find some ways of tuning the engine, and it can have better performance, definitely."

Fergal Walsh

F1 News McLaren Honda

Replies (5)

mclarenfan1968

Posts: 1,027
This is very unjapanese of them to be struggling with the engine design for 3 years straight. One has to wonder how much of the development tasks are being offloaded to interns and junior workforce.
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- Mar 11 2017 - 12:59
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Alot can happen before Melbourne, as long as they've nailed the basic concept they can continue to develope during the year.
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- Mar 11 2017 - 13:05
- mbmwe36
  
  Posts: 533
  You are right, of course. But so can the other manufactures.
  This development is ridiculous by anyone's standards. Their stubbornness in terms of refusing "outside" help is seemingly coming back to haunt them.
  + 0
  
  Mar 11 2017 - 14:33
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  I must admit I am disappointed. I am a pretty big fan of both Honda and McLaren, and to see this happen is a letdown.
  + 0
  
  Mar 11 2017 - 14:53
- mbmwe36
  
  Posts: 533
  I'm disappointed as well. I'm not really a fan of either, but it still would've been nice had they been able to make an impact.
  I can respect that they went for a couple of years ago, a radically different solution that was a calculated risk. This year, however, there are no excuses as far as I'm concerned, and if I was McLaren I would definitely start looking around.
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  Mar 11 2017 - 15:17