Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai has claimed that it is unfair the engine maker is receiving all criticism and has rebuked doubts that the Japanese firm could make enough of a step forward over the next winter to become competitive.
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I would like to hear the opinions of the Honda fans who, before the season started, were under the impression that Honda will somehow make a good engine package. What is happening on track now is embarassing. It reminds me of the Takuma Sato Honda days where it was almost as if he had a kick down switch under the gas pedal that would grenade the engine.
Did we all forget the days honda engines used to blow up left right and centre?
I'm actually not suprised they are back to having an engine problem at every race. I'm feeling sorry for Mclaren for switching from mercedes. It's just too painful to watch two cars retiring each race or one car being walked down and overtaken by a renualt powered car.
Can Honda realistically get the car to even be more reliable than the Marussia's?
A lot of people assumed that McLaren-Honda would dominate this year and show Mercedes just how it's done etc. Since testing, there have been a lot of people keen to hammer McLaren and Honda (and Ron Dennis and anyone involved) and tell them that they're rubbish and everything should just "work" and not have any trouble. Let's look at Red Bull, the most dominant team in the last 5 years, using a tried and tested engine formula and supplier. Yet last year, when the regulations changed, Red Bull were almost nowhere, it was only the well developed (over time) chassis that kept them as close as they were.
This season, McLaren have come to the party with a new chassis design and a new engine supplier with a new (to them) engine regulation. It's going to take them time to play catch up. Those saying that Honda had plenty of development time forget that they also did not have the same kind of testing cycle. Not only did Honda not get the testing time last year, they also didn't have the almost 20 races which also serve to develop engines.
Yes, I'm a McLaren fan, and always have been, and yes, I'm disappointed in the lack of success so far this year, but I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon of slamming the project this early. I'm going to keep the faith with them and let them continue to improve bit by bit. I have the belief that there will come a time where McLaren-Honda are back on top.
ringo wrote:I would like to hear the opinions of the Honda fans who, before the season started, were under the impression that Honda will somehow make a good engine package. What is happening on track now is embarassing. It reminds me of the Takuma Sato Honda days where it was almost as if he had a kick down switch under the gas pedal that would grenade the engine.
Did we all forget the days honda engines used to blow up left right and centre?
I'm actually not suprised they are back to having an engine problem at every race. I'm feeling sorry for Mclaren for switching from mercedes. It's just too painful to watch two cars retiring each race or one car being walked down and overtaken by a renualt powered car.
Can Honda realistically get the car to even be more reliable than the Marussia's?
completely agree , they kept saying revolutionary technologies , unforeseen technologies..and now even after spending the tokens 2 engines changed but still retirements , i guess old engine was more reliable . honda is not looking like a manufacturer.forget beating mercedes they have gone back to where they belong closer to manors
I did not expect McLaren Honda to do that well this season but I had hoped they would be fighting in the middle of the pack and showing some potential for the future. Right now they seem to be doing a poor job by their own standards and below their own expectations. Agree with Alonso they are looks ng a bit like amateurs.
I mean as i wrote on the last Page i knew Canada wouldn't be all too pretty for us but that Weekend was quite disappointing on Relability, Efficiency and Power. It was clear that the long Straights would hurt us but Fernando and Jenson were practically sitting Ducks with Neon signs over their Heads that screamed "overtake me". And then the call to save even more Fuel in Lap 22 already..... Topped of with the Problems in the FP's and the double DNF in the Race it's a bitter Pill to swallow. There is still a HUGE amount of Work to do and i hope the Austria Package will give them a good boost, even if it's more the engine than the Chassis i am worried about.
On a positive Note. The Car seems to be quite good under braking, as Vettel found out the hard Way.
We knew Canada would be tough, but I've never believed that it would be like this. Hearing Alonso saying I don't want to save fuel while yelling in anger gives me the insight of how bad the performance of the MP4-30 is overall. I believe in Mclaren, always....but this is a season to forget and 5th place looks like a milestone too far to reach this season.
we as fan not expecting miracle from honda but we do expect being a top class manufacturer they will get their act together pretty fast , we all expected canada to be tougher but this tougher no on expected , PU failures , exhaust related failure , ERS failures then wats the point of spending token for reliability. i doubt that watever claims they made about engine performance to be unlocked all just bluffs , engine is mediocre and fragile and older claims of it being on par with last year mercedes are baseless. i have more faith in mclaren than in honda .
I have had some bad words for Alonso in the past due to his reactions on the radio. But yesterday I understood his reaction, it must be absolutely annoying to drive a so slow car, defending from the attacks of 3-4 drivers in a row and then have to listen to this message.
What Honda is doing is pathetic, and both Honda and Mclaren need to react. You cannnot repeat the same excuse in each race, Mclaren cant accept a so embarrasing perfomance. Austria will be terrible if they dont do something.
Honda have done a terrible job. They needed to have an actual test car running in the lead up to this season, not just a bunch of engines on a dyno. The money they paid for Alonso would have been better spent with a better testing program. McLaren could easily have contributed to this testing financially by getting rid of Button and taking someone less expensive.
I remember thinking when I heard Honda were coming back that it would be a no brainer to test that way. They should be doing it in secret now! Worse things are happening in F1 right now, it's nosplace for sticking to the rules.
Finally, everyone knows that Red Bull is a joke and Max Verstappen is overrated.
Thanks!
In hindsight it is kind of "funny" that the mechanic says they need to save fuel because there might be retirements in the end of the race and for them to make sure that they can fight for positions in the end.. and than they retire themselves.. both cars