As I hinted at earlier, Honda can't be blamed for everything. Here's a laundry list of items that need to be addressed for the remainder of the season.
- Tyre wear. Quite frankly, this is the biggest cause for concern. The interface of tyre-to-tarmac, as a function of power delivery, chassis performance and driver management, has been poor. Honda could deliver the most powerful engine and this car would go backwards in the races like the Mercedes of 2010/2011/2012.
- Fuel efficiency. I think the 1-lap power is likelier to approximate the performance of the other manufacturers much sooner than we think. But the relative efficiency of the engine, including the hybrid components, is a much more difficult problem to solve. Having to fuel save, or simply run heavier than the other cars, will absolute kill their race pace.
- Drivers. I'm not convinced by either of these guys, but especially Hartley. I know they're inexperienced, but Toro Rosso are suffering massively this year by not having someone as accomplished as Sainz in the car.
- Integration issues. We know the chassis isn't optimised, and the engine isn't either. This will need to be improved as the season progresses, but how much money and manpower is being thrown at the problem especially from the TR side?
- Reliability. I've put this last as I consider it the least important component. Quite frankly, I'd far rather see the Honda engine grenading itself every other race if it meant improving power output and efficiency more quickly. This team were always going to be toward the back of the grid anyway, so there is little to be lost by installing more power units. However, I think Honda have been burned by the previous years with McLaren, and they will have hedged their development between performance and reliability.
While it isn't doom and gloom, it certainly could be rosier.
They're at least involved in a race with someone, namely Sauber, and Williams are not far away (oh, Williams!). There are numerous avenues of potential improvement, and I would anticipate their rate of development to be higher than most other teams, considering the variety of sources from which improvements can be generated.
However, it has to be acknowledged that they are a long way from being truly competitive - both Honda and Toro Rosso - and I don't think this was the showing that Red Bull were hoping for.
