Datco wrote: ↑03 Feb 2020, 18:40
HPD wrote: ↑03 Feb 2020, 15:34
Criticism can be beneficial or harmful.
I don't share the idea that Alonso criticisms helped Honda have a good engine.
Honda was ready to leave F1 in 2018 (search online). So they can't say the reviews helped because they did the opposite. And from the development of the engine, they would arrive sooner or later at a good level.
The people who saved the Honda F1 project were Franz Tost and Helmut Marko. Using the TR as a test car.
I think the same as @Jambier. The main problem is that Alonso is Toyota ambassador
True visionaries. Nobody in 2017 wanted to even touch Honda with a stick. Remember Alonso also saying he felt sorry for TR and their drivers. Not many people had confidence in their decision. We're everybody else saw hopelessness the RBR group saw opportunity. Credit to RBR managment.
That said it would have been nice see Alonso in a competitive Indy car. Even though I am not an Indy follower, the 2017 race got me started. I wonder if the apology came in hopes of Honda agreeing however the problem with the apology was that he included a "but"
Exactly and when STR and Tost actually got the PU from Honda, he said he was surprised by how much negativity surrounded it, he said it was far better than what was portrayed in the media and even then was the most compact and tidy unit he's seen.
At the risk of talking about this.. again, a lot of negativity was created around the breakup and Honda had its downsides but McLaren did not help them at all, denying requests for space, pretty much forcefully requesting x dimensions etc. Any negative response from Honda would just cause McLaren to publicly slaughter them.