Mclaren Honda 2015

[DiogoBrand]

Alonso probably didn't listen to his PU song on twitter.

[Thunder]

To clear some Things up.....
https://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/ ... 2105891840 https://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/ ... 6004856833 https://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/ ... 2632913921 https://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/ ... 1091956737

[Felipe 92]

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12479/ ... en-in-2016

You are going to lose a lot of TV and prize money, that car looks empty without sponsors. Have McLaren got the financial clout they need to get back to the sharp end of the grid?

Ron Dennis : "You don't need to be an Einstein - if you look at McLaren you've got pretty significant debt with the automotive company, the technology company. We will announce a new sponsor next week, a good sponsor. And there are others in the pipeline. Of course you always want more, this is a sport that will consume everything. And we have strong technical engineering and technical support in many areas with Honda. So we are in a pretty unique position. Most people are paying significant sums for engines, it is the way you construct your budget that is important and we have more than enough to be competitive."

Any idea who is going to be the new sponsor?

[PlatinumZealot]

Wazari-senpai, how is the Japanese reaction to Alonso's team radio outburst?
How does your nephew feel about this?
Does it change their perception of Alonso? It makes me wonder if Honda really signs Alonso's pay check. (I doubt it now actually!)

[tonmeister]

Alonso needs to keep his patience, Honda will win in couple of years,

Patience? sorry but this guy has put up with more than any other driver on history, at least of his skill. He is been wrong footed since 2007.

Up until now, in this season, he has been really polite about the team and engine supplier with the press. Today he made a mistake in the middle of a race with the GP2 commentary but, honestly, I´d love to see how some of the people that ask for political correctness would handle the same situation; you know? being in a race, adrenaline and all, where you KNOW that you are the better driver, driving your ass off with no mistakes and still getting smoked on straights.

Honda will take note for sure and this whole thing could go two ways. They put extra effort on the engine or they put extra effort on firing Alonso. We´ll see what route they take...

[hollus]

I think that what he said during the race, with 180BPMs in his heart, was embarrassing, specially in Japan.
But on Alonso's defense, once with a cool head, and while reaffirming what he had said in the race, he also said:

“I think this is the only thing that will challenge Mercedes in the near future,” he said. “Right now is tough times because we don’t have the toys to fight with them but I think everyone is working very hard. This is a very positive thing, everyone is making sure that we know the problems, we go deep into the solutions that we will find for next year and we are working on that process.”

In any case, if we had any doubts whether the engine of the chassis was slowing them most... Button got passed before 130R for crying out loud!

[j.yank]

It is important for Honda to deliver 1 sec gain this year using the balance 4 tokens if they have any chance to fight for podiums next year.

Probably they can't do this and they are keeping the remaining tokens for the last race. In this case these tokens will be part of the major winter upgrade and this will give them more possibilities for changes. If they will spent them now the effect could be minimal.

[DiogoBrand]

IMO it seems like the Honda PU has showed a lot of improvement this weekend. Alonso was able to hold Max and Kvyat for a good few laps, and got an 11th place against pretty much 6 cars with better engines. Of course most of these cars have inferior chassi, but it shows that McHonda has some potential.
As I said before, I wouldn't expect them to be fighting for top 5 until next season, and I think until the end of this year a lot of people are gonna be frustrated because of that. But if Honda can fix their turbo and MGU dimensioning a lot of good things may come yet.

[turbof1]

The fine chassis does come for a good part by the too small PU of honda. To take it an extreme: if you'd design the chassis like there was no PU present, you'll have the very best chassis on the grid. Unfortunaly the car will not move an inch then.

If Wazari's source is reliable, and I'm very much inclined to believe that is the case, and Mclaren just gave Honda the chassis dimension to fit a PU inside of it, then you would naturally expect that it indeed pays off in chassis design.

Next year the chassis will probably be less. The turbo size looks to be the main issue for the lack of power. A bigger turbo will have its impact.

[Andres125sx]

Alonso has always been very smart (please do not confuse with polite, very different) on his public comments, he´s been patient to asthonishing levels with Ferrari, Renault and any other team he´s been, as he was with McHonda until now too, so I´m wondering if this could be a tactical movement

Wazari said, and I´ve read around here from people who know japanese and Honda culture, Honda has his own plan and schedule, and they will never change it no matter if everyone inside McLaren, or every soul on planet earth think they should. They even said they prefer learing the whole process theirselves before signing in someone with experience from any other top team...


Sometimes when someone has lost contact with reality, a slap on his face is the best solution to return him to reality. If you (Alonso and/or McLaren) want to do this with Honda, this is exactly what they should do.

Coincidence or planned?

Desperation or strategy?

[turbof1]

Alonso has always been very smart (please do not confuse with polite, very different) on his public comments, he´s been patient to asthonishing levels with Ferrari, Renault and any other team he´s been, as he was with McHonda until now too, so I´m wondering if this could be a tactical movement

Wazari said, and I´ve read around here from people who know japanese and Honda culture, Honda has his own plan and schedule, and they will never change it no matter if everyone inside McLaren, or every soul on planet earth think they should. They even said they prefer learing the whole process theirselves before signing in someone with experience from any other top team...


Sometimes when someone has lost contact with reality, a slap on his face is the best solution to return him to reality. If you (Alonso and/or McLaren) want to do this with Honda, this is exactly what they should do.

Coincidence or planned?

Desperation or strategy?

I more or less agree with you, but I still believe that it was the heat of the moment when he yelled that through the team radio. Afterwards he'll probably will have realised what he said, and probably decided that he should follow through in the post race interviews with it, instead of just swallowing his words back in, with in the back of his mind that it indeed could rattle the cages a bit at Honda's.

[piast9]

In any case, if we had any doubts whether the engine of the chassis was slowing them most... Button got passed before 130R for crying out loud!

I actually missed that overtake but some overtakes seemed bizzare. It looked like at the end of the straight Honda suddenly lost power. I don't know if that was running out of the MGU-K boost or what but somehting is wrong with that PU.

[Wazari]

Wazari-senpai, how is the Japanese reaction to Alonso's team radio outburst?
How does your nephew feel about this?
Does it change their perception of Alonso? It makes me wonder if Honda really signs Alonso's pay check. (I doubt it now actually!)

Senpai? I don't think I deserve that title. Oh, I have a headache, too many beeru's last night. Well it's Monday morning and Alonso's rant is all over the racing news. I don't know where to start with Honda's view about this. Honda is very reserved about making any comments in public and like my nephew, I'm sure most at Honda have mixed feelings about his comments. Yes it's no secret that Honda's PU is short on output and that Alonso has a fiery personality. So I think most can understand his outburst but feel anywhere from a little to moderately upset about his comment. There is no question that no one is more upset about Honda's performance than the team at Honda Racing. We were and are a very prideful bunch and it is killing them inside. The best way to describe it is the word "kuyashii". That is the sentiment inside Honda right now. They are literally working 12 to 16 hour days, 7 days on week on next year's PU. Unfortunately the extremely limited testing allowances are really hampering fast progress. It was very heartwarming to see that the younger generation at Honda Racing still has the same passion and "won't quit" attitude that we had back in the day.

I don't think Honda's perception of Alonso has changed. He is a great driver and wants to win. You have to hate to lose more than you want to win and Alonso and Button both fit that mold. I hope Button is back next year where he should have a fighting chance to make Q3 every race and compete for a podium once in awhile.

I doubt if Honda actually signs the driver's checks but Honda is stuffing McLaren's coffers with a boatload of pounds.

[superdowg316]

Ron Dennis : "We will announce a new sponsor next week, a good sponsor."

Any idea who is going to be the new sponsor?

Slightly off topic from the question, it seems like Ron's had to maybe bring his asking price down in order to attract new sponsors, so I say good on him/the board members for doing that! Considering the rumours that he turned down a $40million sponsorship deal with Jonnie Walker because it 'wasn't high enough', this is a welcome change!

Anyways, back on topic, by the way Ron says 'a good sponsor', I can only assume that it's possibly a well known one that brings quiet a bit of cash. I'd like to bet Sony since they're a Japanese company and they've been linked to McLaren since Vodafone left. Only thing is back then they were a bit cash strapped so since that the PS4 is doing so well maybe they have the financial balance to sponsor them now? Telefonica/Movistar were also linked at the start of the year, and I do think they'll join at some point thanks to Alonso, but they already sponsor the Yamaha MotoGP Team so I'd only think it'd be a small space like the front wing or the rear wing endplate. I've also heard murmurs that McLaren have been trying to ditch Mobil 1 for Castrol in the last few years, but I doubt that's going to happen.

Should be an interesting week, that's for sure....

[max_speed]

in short i love Japanese tech people and their professionalism and perfectionist attitude. Alonso is also a perfectionist , anyone who saw the race will agree he fended off cars for many laps, but he is more expressive. ideally those radio statements must be said in private but i still think may be it was planned. he/mclaren used occasion to stir the pride of HONDA.i guess as proud racers they will use these statements to fire themselves and come out in better shape for next year.