Honda Power Unit Hardware & Software

[Ciro Pabón]

Yesterday Motor Sport Council rubber-stamped an additional engine for Honda and eliminated in-race penalties.

However, I see nowhere the rumored allowance of extra tokens for the troubled Japanese F1 engine division.

So, McLaren hopes of improvement, apparently, go down the chute, unless the words "applied retrospectively to Honda" is codeword for "let's give them some extra tokens".

The WMSC has approved the rule adjustments proposed by the F1 Strategy Group and approved by the F1 Commission. These are:
- The simplification of the power unit penalties, ensuring that the most a driver can be penalised is to be demoted to the rear of the grid – this will eliminate penalties during the race for these infractions.
- New power unit manufacturers to F1 will receive an extra power unit for each driver to use throughout Grands Prix for the season, bringing the total to five – one more than the existing power unit suppliers. This will be applied retrospectively to Honda.
These changes to the sporting regulations will come into force with immediate effect.

http://www.fia.com/news/world-motor-spo ... 015-mexico

Frankly, "Formula One boredom" is already a problem. Even the bad guys cars at Fast and Furious Seven were Mercedes...

Uncool and Mercedes becoming synonymous?


Mr. Lauda comments about "muck... spaghetti" for Ferrari and comments about Honda in an HR exercise while McLaren lifeline is stressed beyond belief do not help. Totto Wolf came to the rescue assuring that Lauda did not mean what he cleared meant because when you call someone a spaghetti-eater is because you respect him.

Lauda added that he agrees with Hamlton comments about F1 "ugly trophies", claiming he exchanged his F1 trophies for car washes. We can start to call him Niki "Respect" Lauda: he clearly is a PR wonder...

Hey, if I play it well I can exchange this for a free oil filter!


http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/ ... ar_washes/

Honda debacle is not about measuring straight speed and horsepower, if you ask me.

We could ponder that Mercedes provided identical power units in 2014 to McLaren, Force India and Williams. Although power is part of Honda troubles, the lack of competitiveness by those teams in 2014 proves that McLaren needs more than a good power unit. I predict Boullier career at McLaren will be a short one. Firing people apparently worked for Ferrari.

[Andres125sx]

However, I see nowhere the rumored allowance of extra tokens for the troubled Japanese F1 engine division.

What rumors? Any more detail?

- The simplification of the power unit penalties, ensuring that the most a driver can be penalised is to be demoted to the rear of the grid – this will eliminate penalties during the race for these infractions.

To me that´d be a mistake, it wouldn´t be fair. Even when I support Alonso and right now he´s one of the most prones to receive this sort of penalties, IMHO this is a fair sistem


But to be sincere, as I write this I´ve realiced without on race penalties that´d be some sort of help to manufacturers with problems, as someone qualifying in 18th position wouldn´t receive a big penalty by putting a new PU, so they can develop their PU further without huge penalizations. Could be interesting to stop some manufacturer from whipping the floor with their competitors and matching their perfomances

Lauda added that he agrees with Hamlton comments about F1 "ugly trophies", claiming he exchanged his F1 trophies for car washes.

Have to agree with this. IMO trophies should have two parts, one common for all of them, so they´re recogniced as F1 trophies from the first view, and a second part different for each track so they still are unique, but someone with a bit of good taste should give his approval before producing this sort of things

Firing people apparently worked for Ferrari.

Have to disagree with this. Ferrari is alternating seasons being second (WCC), and third/fourth for many years now.

2008: Second behing McLaren, maybe first if you consider Hamilton is a lot better than Massa and they battled till last race.
2009: fourth team
2010: second
2011: third
2012: second
2013: third
2014: fourth
2015: second

So it´s only 2014 when they failed with their tendency, instead of one season being third/fouth, they did it twice in a row, and now second again

So I don´t see any change with all the firing. Well maybe they were doing even worse than usual and they stopped an even worse tendency, but that´s not a great achievement for a team like Ferrari

That´s the reason Alonso went out, he was tired of fighting for second place, what he actually achieved two times. Anyone thing Vettel will be second in the WDC this season? Then I don´t see any improvement, actually it´s the other way around, with Alonso and the second car, they managed to be second in the WDC. Now with Vettel and the second car, they will only be third.

Where´s the improvement?

[mrluke]

I dont think Mclarens problem is Boullier, he was doing a good job at lotus on less resources.

Mclaren need a culture change.

[Ciro Pabón]

However, I see nowhere the rumored allowance of extra tokens for the troubled Japanese F1 engine division.

What rumors? Any more detail?

Oops. I think everybody reads AM&S, sorry. There you go, I hope you read more Merkele articles than Tsipras's, because it is in Deutsch.

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 44912.html

Where´s the improvement?

Well, as Alonso got tickets for the Titanic this year, we can compare Räikkönnen results only.

So, Kim last year average position was ninth.

This year Mr. Sympathy has an average finish of fifth.

You may or may not agree that's an improvement.

Kimi is happy with the improvement


Anyway, italian press got their "morituri te salutant" they were asking for, that's truly an improvement.

Italians have a taste for firing people

[Andres125sx]

However, I see nowhere the rumored allowance of extra tokens for the troubled Japanese F1 engine division.

What rumors? Any more detail?

Oops. I think everybody reads AM&S, sorry. There you go, I hope you read more Merkele articles than Tsipras's, because it is in Deutsch.

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 44912.html

thanks, didn´t know that

And no, unluckily I must read more or lesss same Merkele articles as Tsipras I can´t read german and german-spanish translations are painfull

So Honda and Renault might be allowed to develop frozen parts, that´d be great, but I guess if that happens it will be after season end. So I hope they´re not allowed because last part of the season they´ve improved current perfomance a good amount

Yes I´m a dreamer

Where´s the improvement?

Well, as Alonso got tickets for the Titanic this year, we can compare Räikkönnen results only.

So, Kim last year average position was ninth.

This year Mr. Sympathy has an average finish of fifth.

You may or may not agree that's an improvement.

As I said...

So I don´t see any change with all the firing. Well maybe they were doing even worse than usual and they stopped an even worse tendency, but that´s not a great achievement for a team like Ferrari

I must reckon I see it from Alonso´s pov tough. He went out of Maranello because he was tired of second places and that´s all Ferrari has been able to do lately. Now they´re not even second in the WDC, so from that pov there´s no improvement at all. Obviously compared with past season they improved, but only to return to their usual position, wich is one step down the leaders

From that pov, they´ve not improved at all, same as last 6 years, before and after all that firing

[PlatinumZealot]

Honda goes attack Mode:

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12479 ... erformance

I don't really know how they can be sure their reliability is fixed though.

Analysis of running parameters Oil analysis, and surface inspections etc i guess

[j.yank]

The race trap speeds in the Canadian race are higher because of the slipstreaming. The fastest race speed last year was 36x km/h from Ricciardo at Monza, but he was in a 3 car slipstream with the DRS open at the time. At the end of the day you are still making a guess at the Cd so there should be no expectation of accuracy (especially since Cd is changing with speed).

There wasn't any car in front of Alonso when Vetel was behind him, also he was with closed DRS, Vetel with open DRS, and the cars where with about 80 kg more fuel than in qualification. The wind on this day was from south against the car at the speed trap straight.

[aterren]

Mclaren need a culture change.

Dennis and Boullier are the culture change. What remains to be seen is whether it will prove effective in the medium term.

[Facts Only]

I'm not even hearing word that they are trying to grab people from Brixworth/Viri/Maranello to try and sort this mess out. Back in the days of the Renault dominance Flavio set up a working group of engineers in the UK to modify the Renault engine in competion with Viri to push them to get the very most from it. Honda could do the same with their satelite base in Milton Keynes, nab a load of engineers from HPP/Cosworth/Ilmor/AER/Judd etc etc and let them have a free run at sorting out the engine they have independent from the Honda juggernaught in Japan.

At this point they may need to swallow their pride a bit to stop their reputation being further ruined.

Quoting myself here but I have just read this on Autosport:

When asked whether Honda would look to hire experience from Mercedes or Ferrari, Arai replied: "I don't think so. We have enough resources already."

Oh blimey, its really time someone with a sense of urgency and an unobstructed/unbiased view of whats going on stepped in to sort their mess out. They will never get anywhere with this sort of attitude, they clearly dont have enough or the correct resource or they wouldn't be doing so very badly.

[maguetox]

I'm not even hearing word that they are trying to grab people from Brixworth/Viri/Maranello to try and sort this mess out. Back in the days of the Renault dominance Flavio set up a working group of engineers in the UK to modify the Renault engine in competion with Viri to push them to get the very most from it. Honda could do the same with their satelite base in Milton Keynes, nab a load of engineers from HPP/Cosworth/Ilmor/AER/Judd etc etc and let them have a free run at sorting out the engine they have independent from the Honda juggernaught in Japan.

At this point they may need to swallow their pride a bit to stop their reputation being further ruined.

Quoting myself here but I have just read this on Autosport:

When asked whether Honda would look to hire experience from Mercedes or Ferrari, Arai replied: "I don't think so. We have enough resources already."

Oh blimey, its really time someone with a sense of urgency and an unobstructed/unbiased view of whats going on stepped in to sort their mess out. They will never get anywhere with this sort of attitude, they clearly dont have enough or the correct resource or they wouldn't be doing so very badly.

Welcome to my boat!!!!

After reading the Autosport article I just like to add two things. First: he is an arrogant and petulant guy that don't accept he need help to fix the mess that he create. Second: McLaren and Arai are in different agendas. While Mclaren need to start winning ASAP looks like Arai have the 10 years to be fix this mess.

If don't believe me read these quotes from Autosport:

Arai also re-affirmed his commitment to helping turn the project's fortunes around, saying he believes he is the right man to lead Honda's F1 team, despite its poor start.

"I want to lead my programme by myself," he said.

"We must make the step we are able to take each year.

"I promise it's a long-term project for Honda."

[Andres125sx]

Maybe it´s not Honda who is obstructed/biased

Maybe they really have a new PU for Hungary with 70hp more like they or some sources are claiming

Maybe they really solved their main reliability issues as they said theirselves

Maybe things will improve noticeably in next races as Alonso said

Maybe we should be a bit more patient with this new and aggresive project wich never was meant to produce results in first half of this season as we are yet

[Jef Patat]

I hope all the 'maybes' are 'maybes' and don't become 'maybe nots' as they have in the past. As always we have to wait, but god I would love to witness the first race with real progress, would be lovely.

[Andres125sx]

Agree

[hollus]

Maybe we should be a bit more patient with this new and aggresive project wich never was meant to produce results in first half of this season as we are yet

I actually think it was meant to. I think Honda had expected to either get a lot more done by February or to have 20+ tokens to spend in-season. When none of that happened and with only 9 tokens left, focus necessarily shifted to 2016 and then, strategically, it is better to spend those tokens as late as possible to make sure that they carry over to 2016, as it was better to homologate a first PU with power potential even at the cost of no reliability. It is a shame it sacrifices 2015, really, but it would be stupid to rush these tokens, they'll yield many more points after October 2015 than before.

[drunkf1fan]

Maybe it´s not Honda who is obstructed/biased

Maybe they really have a new PU for Hungary with 70hp more like they or some sources are claiming

Maybe they really solved their main reliability issues as they said theirselves

Maybe things will improve noticeably in next races as Alonso said

Maybe we should be a bit more patient with this new and aggresive project wich never was meant to produce results in first half of this season as we are yet

Never meant to produce results in the first half of the season is a very strong thing to say considering both Honda and Mclaren were talking about decent points finishes within a few races. After the disaster of testing by Australia they were talking up Europe for massive steps forward into the points and mentioning podiums by midseason, wins at the end, since then that has slipped back with Boullier talking about next year for podiums and towards the end of next year for wins.

Sorry but if mclaren and Honda both said they'd be competitive by now you can't simply brush that under the carpet and change history to make it seem less bad or suggest people are judging them harshly.