Honda Power Unit Hardware & Software

[wuzak]

FIA has come to their senses? How is that possible?

They haven't actually - they're making a bigger mess.

[damager21]

Following are some of the arguments in favour of and against Honda

Advantage for Honda
1. They get unlimited engine development till 28th Feb 2015 unlike Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault who can use only 32 tokens
2. They would have benchmarks to achieve for engine power and drive-ability unlike others who were shooting in the dark last year
3. They would have data on engine and fuel usage during a race weekend which could potentially help them design their PU accordingly
4. Maybe they have some details about Mercedes engine design giving them a head start

Disadvantage for Honda
1. Honda is a new entrant and has been away from F1 since 2009. Though we have moved from V8 to V6, other manufacturers would have used some of their recent experiences and technological advances while designing their V6 PU- this is something that Honda lacks
2. It is forced to supply only four engines to McLaren this year. Last year, other manufacturers could supply 5 engines. This is quite important from reliability stand point
3. Next year, it is allowed to use only 25 tokens for development, the same as other manufacturers. But in the process it would loose out on 32 tokens which other manufacturers get to use this year.
4. Other manufacturers have 1 year of race weekend data. This is a big handicap for Honda

Overall, I think this is a fair decision or should I say a fair compromise. One can have arguments for both sides but somewhere I feel this was required as Honda would have had a big disadvantage this season.

More than Honda, I think this would have been a huge disadvantage for McLaren and two world champions - Alonso and Button. We want these chaps to be fighting with Lewis, Nico and Vettel and not be a sitting duck.

I am sure, FIA would have realized that they are being unfair to these drivers and accordingly introduced this change. In 2007 when the spygate happened, FIA stripped McLaren of all its Constructors points but allowed both Alonso and Lewis to fight for the Drivers championship - which was fair to them.

[bill shoe]

The optimum play by Mercedes would be:

They show up at the first race of 2015 and say "This is our only 2015 homologation. We will not make further modifications or homologations during 2015. We will respect the fairness and intent of the rules as originally written. We will still dominate our competition even though they are modifying throughout the season against the intention of the rules.

Notice this will leave zero Mercedes tokens unused, and will therefore minimize the tokens available to Honda.

This overall approach is really low risk to Mercedes given their obvious domination of 2015.

[djos]

Apparently they want to see what the competition had achieved before using any tokens.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... old-engine

[Nickel]

So the best trade off was to allow honda the flexibility like the other teams. Now i think this is not much of a gift. The elephant in the room is time.. Even if Honda gets those tokens to use, they will spend most of the year understanding their engine than developing it.
...Snip...
This whole ruling in favour of Honda is more a gesture of hospitality because they are the new guys on the block. They can't fully utilize it, because they are now in collecting data mode than developing mode, unlike the other engine makers.

I don't agree. Say they come out of the gate like one of the two lame duck engines from last year, say hypotheticall an undersized turbo incapable of maximizing MGUH power. Presto, next engine gets a different turbo, with a couple tokens to spare. Bonus for Honda is only supplying one team, making engine upgrade schedule far less troublesome.

I'd bet money Honda have used all available tokens by summer break.

[damager21]

Apparently they want to see what the competition had achieved before using any tokens.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... old-engine

Mercedes is in the best position. If these reports are true then they know that they already have 50hp in the bag. They can very well test the new engine next month but start 2015 campaign with the 2014 engine. The data collected during testing for new engine can be used by them to further develop their 2015 engine before official introduction later in the year.

Just think of this... Mercedes was to use 32 tokens in second half of the season, they continue that development during the winter season with 25 tokens for next year. In effect they can consider this as an opportunity to use 57 tokens to change 66 parts which is allowed. They can again dominate in 2016 with a 86% (57/66) new engine.

On the other hand, if Ferrari / Renault / Honda was to beat them in the first few race, depending on the difference in lap times, they can decide to introduce 2015 engine immediately or after first 5 race.

[lio007]

Apparently they want to see what the competition had achieved before using any tokens.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... old-engine

Mercedes is in the best position. If these reports are true then they know that they already have 50hp in the bag. They can very well test the new engine next month but start 2015 campaign with the 2014 engine. The data collected during testing for new engine can be used by them to further develop their 2015 engine before official introduction later in the year.

Just think of this... Mercedes was to use 32 tokens in second half of the season, they continue that development during the winter season with 25 tokens for next year. In effect they can consider this as an opportunity to use 57 tokens to change 66 parts which is allowed. They can again dominate in 2016 with a 86% (57/66) new engine.

On the other hand, if Ferrari / Renault / Honda was to beat them in the first few race, depending on the difference in lap times, they can decide to introduce 2015 engine immediately or after first 5 race.

According to omnicorse Mercedes is not going to use 2014 PU in the first races, they'll start with 2015-PU: http://www.omnicorse.it/magazine/46467/ ... t-del-2015

Also motorsport-magazin.com reports that Wolff has been misunderstood by L'Equipe: http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/forme ... erstanden/

[wuzak]

Apparently they want to see what the competition had achieved before using any tokens.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... old-engine

Mercedes is in the best position. If these reports are true then they know that they already have 50hp in the bag. They can very well test the new engine next month but start 2015 campaign with the 2014 engine. The data collected during testing for new engine can be used by them to further develop their 2015 engine before official introduction later in the year.

Just think of this... Mercedes was to use 32 tokens in second half of the season, they continue that development during the winter season with 25 tokens for next year. In effect they can consider this as an opportunity to use 57 tokens to change 66 parts which is allowed. They can again dominate in 2016 with a 86% (57/66) new engine.

On the other hand, if Ferrari / Renault / Honda was to beat them in the first few race, depending on the difference in lap times, they can decide to introduce 2015 engine immediately or after first 5 race.

Many of the tokens used this year will be the same as the ones they use next year. Plus more components are completely frozen.

[hollus]

Excellent summary, damager21.
One more advantage for Honda which is often overseen: They had the chance (they might or might not have done it) to hire for 2014 work engineers which were involved, in 2013, in the design of the PUs ran in 2014. So while the other manufacturers had to design their first PU totally in the dark, Honda can do it knowing not only about their on-track performance, but also about some of their internal details.
So the first PU from Honda, which they are partially forced to keep in the future, is much more refined than the first PU of the competition was. At the very minimum one would expect no blunders in Honda's first PU.

[dren]

At the very minimum one would expect no blunders in Honda's first PU.

I would expect lots of teething issues that most teams ran into during testing last year. Just look at the first McLaren-Honda test. It reminded me of Red Bull last year.

[mikeerfol]

At the very minimum one would expect no blunders in Honda's first PU.

I would expect lots of teething issues that most teams ran into during testing last year. Just look at the first McLaren-Honda test. It reminded me of Red Bull last year.

But wasn't that mostly issues with McLaren's electronics?

[kptaylor]

People keep saying tokens "will roll over if unused." Is that really the case? I thought the tokens were for each season. When a new engine is used in the next season, don't unused tokens expire?

[wuzak]

People keep saying tokens "will roll over if unused." Is that really the case? I thought the tokens were for each season. When a new engine is used in the next season, don't unused tokens expire?

My understanding of the rule is that any unused tokens from this year will not be able to be used in next year's development.

[Nickel]

People keep saying tokens "will roll over if unused." Is that really the case? I thought the tokens were for each season. When a new engine is used in the next season, don't unused tokens expire?

Who keeps saying this? This is the first time I've seen mention of it. Source?

AFAIK, no tokens carry over after season's end. Although, I have not seen an actual FIA edict as to what would happen if, hypothetically, a manufacturer had a couple tokens left after Abu Dhabi. Seems rather unlikely in any case.

[GoranF1]

https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/55 ... 00/photo/1