Honda Power Unit Hardware & Software

[MrPotatoHead]

Only a few more days now until we can see first hand how well the Honda engine does compared to everyone else!
Exciting times for sure.

As far as people saying that Honda were not constrained on the design side by TR, that may be true relative to McLaren but there are always constraints on the design side from the teams.

One thing I am curious about though is how much did Honda truly redesign after the split with MCL was announced?
I don't think they had time to do too much in the way of package changes after this point in time so I think many are exaggerating the differences from the 2017 package - unless the changes were already in the works in anticipation of the 2018 McLaren car.

Hopefully Honda keeps up the pre season reliability when it comes to go time!

[dren]

There is so much predictive failure analysis done on these PUs that it could be anything. I'd guess an elevated bearing temperature but have no clue.

[dren]

One thing I am curious about though is how much did Honda truly redesign after the split with MCL was announced?
I don't think they had time to do too much in the way of package changes after this point in time so I think many are exaggerating the differences from the 2017 package - unless the changes were already in the works in anticipation of the 2018 McLaren car.

Hopefully Honda keeps up the pre season reliability when it comes to go time!

As Wazari pointed out, it was mainly on the induction side. It looks like that's been a focus over the three PUs Honda has made to date. I'm guessing that's where we'll see the changes this year, the intake ducting and the exhaust header design. Not much else would change I'd guess. Maybe some heat exchanger placement and accompanying ducting.

[MrPotatoHead]

One thing I am curious about though is how much did Honda truly redesign after the split with MCL was announced?
I don't think they had time to do too much in the way of package changes after this point in time so I think many are exaggerating the differences from the 2017 package - unless the changes were already in the works in anticipation of the 2018 McLaren car.

Hopefully Honda keeps up the pre season reliability when it comes to go time!

As Wazari pointed out, it was mainly on the induction side. It looks like that's been a focus over the three PUs Honda has made to date. I'm guessing that's where we'll see the changes this year, the intake ducting and the exhaust header design. Not much else would change I'd guess. Maybe some heat exchanger placement and accompanying ducting.

I see more room for improvement on the Intake design than the exhaust side.
Last years Intake Manifold design had some clear compromises.

[dren]

It's surprising that they're still finding relatively large gains for pumping losses. Of course it has knock on effects with compressor power, too, which should add to the e-compressor running.

[MrPotatoHead]

At the end of the day the engines in the current formula are very new and different from what everyone on the engineering side was used to.
As a result no one has reached the limit of optimization and efficiency yet.
Which is good for us!

[godlameroso]

It's a shame they want to move to another power unit, just now the manufacturers are starting to find their stride and catch up to Mercedes.

[MrPotatoHead]

It's a shame they want to move to another power unit, just now the manufacturers are starting to find their stride and catch up to Mercedes.

I totally agree with this.
They could make some small changes to reduce cost like common MGU nits for instance but still keep the core concept.

[Thunder18]

Hood exhaust not really good for DD, e cutout works well enough for me lol.

Been away for a bit, was there ever any leak about what the 2nd test Honda PU anomaly was? I was hoping it would be sensor related or something simple and not a major internal concern.

This was also on my mind. Was hearing reports describing it as "the only major issue encountered". Which I read as genuine component failure. Mgu-h nightmare begins again. But then Tanabe said they detected an anomaly on the last day. So not entirely sure what the problem was.

The anomaly was the reliability , I joke, but it could be anything, battery, temperatures, harvesting, deployment, fuel!! Has anyone heard different, I haven't seen any report of a major issue??

[loner]

It's a shame they want to move to another power unit, just now the manufacturers are starting to find their stride and catch up to Mercedes.

i highly doubt they will ditch the current formula, the whole of cars and transporting industry is going for the hybrid or even ditching petroleum completely
i have my doubts Wazari and Sasha is the same person or both employees in Honda america performance department
any way the so called Sasha wrote that more than a year ago in TOV

Honda went very advanced again with their new PU.
It looks like they moved the compressor out of the V.(most likely like the MB PU with split turbo with MGU-H in the V between the front compressor and rear turbine)
Also it looks like they went with a trick crank shaft to make the block shorter to make up for the compressor now out of the V.Ford Flathead V8 like with two rods sharing the same crank pin?
It sounds weird!

have no clue what is this mean and any way RBR seems not satisfied with Honda progress since they are saying perhaps Honda PU can match Renault PU at the end of 2018
Saturday qualifications can't come earlier ...

[honda_fun]

Mineoki Yoneya, japanese F1 journalist, reported us in his site about HONDA RA618H. High mounted radiator was installed like RA615H.

[bigblue]

Seen the following quote in a couple of places,

'Don't worry about the chassis. If it means a little more weight or size, we'll find a way. We just didn't want to put pressure on them," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

Key said the outcome of that was good reliability and driveability in the winter tests.

He added: "I don't know how much better Renault has got, but we are not far from what we were used to in 2017.

This one appears to be grandprix.com quoting AMuS !

Glass half-empty - Honda not yet at last year's Renault level.

Glass half-full - Honda nearly at last year's Renault level, and that engine won races.

Glass filled-to-sensible-amount-and-I've-drunk-some - depends on how much Renault have found since then.

[MrPotatoHead]

Seen the following quote in a couple of places,

'Don't worry about the chassis. If it means a little more weight or size, we'll find a way. We just didn't want to put pressure on them," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

Key said the outcome of that was good reliability and driveability in the winter tests.

He added: "I don't know how much better Renault has got, but we are not far from what we were used to in 2017.

This one appears to be grandprix.com quoting AMuS !

Glass half-empty - Honda not yet at last year's Renault level.

Glass half-full - Honda nearly at last year's Renault level, and that engine won races.

Glass filled-to-sensible-amount-and-I've-drunk-some - depends on how much Renault have found since then.

The glass is always full... The question is how much is liquid and how much is air

[godlameroso]

I'd say the 2018 Honda engine is better than the 2017 Renault engine, but not quite as good as the 2018 Renault engine. Probably on par with last year's Ferrari in terms of overall performance but lacking in some areas.

[hurril]

I'd say the 2018 Honda engine is better than the 2017 Renault engine, but not quite as good as the 2018 Renault engine. Probably on par with last year's Ferrari in terms of overall performance but lacking in some areas.

What do you base this on?