"Mclata" as the spanish are calling it..or "Maccan" in english seems to be a good car, Prodromou is good and he is being missed at Red Bull, if Honda has around 100 hp deficit, than it's not hard to believe they would have a competitive car with a decent engine. First couple of seconds are the easier to gain, the last half second it's a lot harder....thats where Ferrari is right now, Mclaren won't get there this season, and probabaly not for the next one....
By the end of the 2015 season they will be respectable Next year they will fight for the top step - IMO
Question is, can Fred wait that long? I'm sure he's depressed as hell right now. Assuming they don't make it next year. Then what?
Poor Alonso. His time at Macca has many similarities with Michaels years at Merc. Is he destined to be a great driver in a poor car only to leave his seat the year it turns into a world beater? Knowing Alonso's luck, it could very well turn out that way...
Technical insight: Honda's radical Formula 1 engine for McLaren - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com Technical insight: Honda's radical Formula 1 engine for McLaren By Craig Scarborough Tuesday, April 21st 2015, 10:19 GMT Honda F1 engine In the months ahead of the launch of the McLaren MP4-30, there was a huge amount of speculation surrounding the technology of the new Honda Formula 1 engine. It's been a troubled start so far, with pre-season testing a disaster and McLaren battling to make up ground in the early flyaway races. A lot of these reliability problems are the result of Honda trying to steal a march on its engine rivals by incorporating new and unproven technology, as, with in-season development limited, it did not want to start 2015 with a basic power unit set-up that would be hard to improve. McLaren went aggressive with the aerodynamic concept on this year's car, and that put pressure on Honda to achieve the packaging required for the Woking team's 'size zero' dimensions. Over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, the ongoing problems on Jenson Button's car allowed us to get the first clear look at the Honda unit, showing just how radical the Japanese firm has gone to achieve minimal volume with its packaging. Honda has split its turbo, but the way it has done so is different to Mercedes, as the turbo sits within the tight confines of the 'V' of the engine, along with the MGU-H. To fit a turbo into this space, it appears that Honda has pioneered the use of an axial flow compressor. Rather than a large centrifugal fan, there are a series of smaller fans along a shaft. This design spins up quicker, although it may lack the maximum possible boost, which is not such an issue in this fuel-limited formula. Aligned on the same shaft as the compressor is the MGU-H and the exhaust-driven turbine; the latter appears to sit behind the engine and is of a more conventional design. Honda hopes to improve driveability and reduce the size of the envelope of the engine with this layout. Above the turbo is a compact, low-line aluminium inlet plenum chamber. Inside, the inlets are turned through 90 degrees to reduce the height of the chamber, while still allowing for variable-length inlet trumpets. More conventionally, the oil tank and MGU-K are located at the front of the engine and under the left-hand cylinder bank respectively. Finally, and again unconventionally, the ERS module ahead of the motor combines the battery and both control electronic boxes (one each for ERS-K and ERS-H) into one unit. This creates a lower and lighter unit that requires less space under the fuel tank area, which again aids aerodynamic packaging. Of course, all of this tight packaging means that there's precious little space for external cooling. All of the ERS elements will require water or oil cooling, which has led to reliability problems and Honda needing to cap power to keep temperatures under control and prevent coolant leaks via the seals around the spinning shafts. Although Honda continues to have reliability problems, the fundamental design of the power unit is valid and will eventually become both powerful and reliable. That will mean McLaren's aerodynamic packaging gains can be fully realised.
There is nothing in common between road cars and race cars; they are chalk and cheese. I don't think the race performance influence potential buyers. People still bought plenty of Ferrari during the Scuderia's 21 years drought, if I remember correctly. Also the McLaren 650S doesn't have a Honda engine, but a reliable home-designed V8 turbo.
This all sounds as if Honda have tried to run before they can walk! There's many a clever concept in F1 that on paper has looked to be fantastic and yet on track has failed miserably! If Honda simply cannot control the temperatures involved, or if the cooling needs compromise the aerodynamic efficiency of the car by too great a margin then the car will never be a front runner. The problem with F1 engineers a lot of the time is that they all too often think that the more complex a system is, the better it must be. In motor racing, sometimes it pays better dividends to keep things simple! From the movie The Gumball Rally: "It's an elegant design!" "I wish it ran!"
+1 Im happy to see them in F1 again. Innovation is good. We need them in F1 and for them to be successful.
I also hope that McLaren does become a contender sooner rather than later. Not so much for Alonso's sake but more for my favorite driver Button.
Ask Ferrari. Their "conservative" 2015 car is a lot better than the "revolutionary" one of 2014. Maybe if McLaren opened a few holes for cooling they´d found that the Honda engine is not bad at all.
Agree, but with the token system, if you start conservative you stay conservative. I'm excited by what I've read about the Honda engine/PU. Once they find a cooling solution, look out Merc and Ferrari! Pete
What don't people get about the token system? You can make any changes you want in the name of reliability. It's only if you are trying to improve inherent performance that you spend tokens. Honda are miles away from needing tokens. They need to chase reliability and with that they will be able to unlock huge latent performance already engineered into their PU.
So, Ricciardo had 3 Renault engines blown under him so far. Do you mean to say that Renault could rework their design just to improve "reliability", and deny any attempt to boost performance? I think there is a thin line between the two that leave people dumbfounded.
Agree which is why it made sense for Honda to go radical , but thanks I did not know that about the tokens. As for Renault their engine is conservative and unreliable. They fix the reliability great but it will still be slow ... boat anchor material IMO. Pete
