2016 McLaren F1 Team - Honda

[Thunder]

Ron Dennis:

"The 2017 regulations level the playing field and it is enough time for us to catch up with Honda, so I think we'll have a good chance next year," Dennis said.

What does he mean by "catch up with Honda" ??

Admission of a not so good chassis ??

Probably a Typo. Should be Mercedes.

[jamblo]

Its just bad grammar–

"...it is enough time for us to catch up with [our] Honda [engine], so I think we'll have a good chance next year...".

[Vasconia]

But you can´t compare Renault and Mercedes. Mercedes did a huge investment to win titles, so any other team beating them with their PU would be a disaster as it would mean they didn´t do a good job with the chasis and aero, while Renault investment proves they are not targeting any title, so any other team winning with their PU would be good news to them

Both RBR and Mercedes are investing more than $400M per year (aiming for titles), while Renault invested around $100M (rough numbers), so I can´t see how someone winning with a Renault PU would be a disaster for Renault, specially when that team invested four times what Renault invested. They´re on different leagues right now, so I´m sure they´d be happy to see someone winning with their PU. Even if they don´t use Renault logos anymore

At least that´s the way I see it

edited: teams budgets for reference

I can see your point. At this very moment the difference between both teams is big if we speak about money, but it would be hard to see a RB winning the WC with a Renault PU which has another name.

Anyway they must be happy with the improvement they have made. Maybe things will go ok between both teams and RB could name his PU as Renault again in 2017.

And about 2017 and Honda, if they are going to re-design the PU they could manage to catch Mercedes. Its a risky move but they need to do it, because the current package seems to have permanent flaws which are difficult to solve.

[CjC]

Isn't Ron Dennis meaning to catch up WITH honda as a partnership, as a team, together.

[McG]

Honda need to start working on that 2017 engine NOW! Or last week.

[Andres125sx]

Honda need to start working on that 2017 engine NOW! Or last week.

And what do you exactly think they´re doing?

PUs will be the same next season, no big changes on that side

[Jolle]

Ron Dennis' predictions starting to get a bit silly. I understand he almost needs to do it from a commercial perspective (you won't find a sponsor short term if you know you're not on the pace for quite some time).

They got a nice tight chassis but the clock is ticking. They had a good car in 2007/08 (almost ten years ago!), 2012 wasn't too bad (until RB got it together) and since then it's gone from bad to worse. At the moment I give Enstone/Renault a better chance to outpace McLaren for 2017.

[McG]

Are they?

Honda need to start working on that 2017 engine NOW! Or last week.

And what do you exactly think they´re doing?

PUs will be the same next season, no big changes on that side

[Vasconia]

Honda need to start working on that 2017 engine NOW! Or last week.

And what do you exactly think they´re doing?

PUs will be the same next season, no big changes on that side

When you need to re-design the PU, its a big change and it requires time.

[Andres125sx]

I know, but do you know if they have already started or not?

All I know is Honda said they´re deciding about what upgrade to use, wich means they´ve developed various solutions and now they´re evaluating wich one to implement, where will they spend the remaining tokens. So they´ve already developed different solutions to solve their problems, wich means they must have a pretty accurate idea about how to modify their PU for 2017, but I´d say they first need to implement, use and analyse this first modification to evaluate it and modify the rest of the PU accordingly.


In other words, you cannot build a 2017 PU before solving 2016 PU problems because any change have cascade effects on the rest of the components, so before thinking about next step, they first need to stablish or consolidate current PU

So we could say current development actually is 2017 PU development too.

[Pany]

I totally agree with u! this season is gone, the only interesting target id the possibility to reach and beat Williams after SPA. All the rest (competition with Toro Rosso, Ferrari etc. are useless for development and for 2017programs)
In the 2017 the goals is: be on par with Redbul and Mercedes; at last try it

[CjC]

Does this ease any of your troubles?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... -2017-step

[McG]

Not really.

Are they saying that the 2016 engine is going to carry over to 2017? Or some parts?

They must have a lot of faith in this 2016 engine. Guess they have to.

Does this ease any of your troubles?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... -2017-step

[diffuser]

Honda need to start working on that 2017 engine NOW! Or last week.

Hasegawa said it needs to be completed by Sept - Oct to be ready for next year.

[Sasha]

Plan now is the 2017 design done by Summer break.