Honda 'may benefit' from delaying F1 return to 2015

While Honda is to miss out on a year's experience of the new technical specifications being introduced in 2014, rivals Renault have suggested this might be no bad thing.

It's a tense time in F1 heading into the 2014, which sees the biggest overhaul in technical and engine specifications in the sport in over a decade, and with manufacturers, teams and drivers alike wondering how they will fare in the upcoming season.

Having powered Red Bull to a fourth world championship in 2013, the spotlight is on just how well Renault will make the transition to the new era. The French manufacturer is also looking 12 months down the road to the return of rivals Honda to the fray as partners with the McLaren F1 team in 2015.

"One could argue it's a good advantage and one could argue it's not," Renault's head of track operations Remi Taffin said when asked whether he felt that Honda's extra year of development will give the Japanese manufacturer the upper hand in the longer term.

"They will not have a car running [in 2014] and I can't see that not being detrimental," he said. "[But] they don't have to focus on 2014 and they are fully focused on '15.

"You have one more year to study your engine and maybe you could end up with a 2015 engine that is much more developed," he conceded. "But at the same time we are going to be developing the engine for 2015.

"We are already working on 2015 and it's very similar.

"It's just a matter of resources," he explained. "They [can] put all their resources, money and people on '15 whereas we have to share."

But Taffin insisted that he'd rather be in Renault's shoes at this point that Honda, despite the pressure on resources and Honda having that extra year to plan and develop.

"Even if you have the best of everything back at the factory, it's always on the car where you validate everything you have been studying through the winter and over the last three or four years," he pointed out. 

Source;
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/199387/1/honda-may-benefit-from-delaying-f1-return-to-2015.html

Honda fears falling behind as rivals benefit from F1 2014 experience

Honda fears falling behind as rivals benefit from F1 2014 experience

Honda top brass admit that taking a watching brief during next year's F1 campaign could put it at a disadvantage when it returns to the track in 2015.

The Japanese marque is due to make a much-heralded return to the top flight with McLaren – with whom it dominated the period between 1988-92 – but will not be ready for competition until 2015, giving rivals Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari a year's head-start when it comes to understanding the new engine and drivetrain technology being adopted by the category next season.

Although Honda is already working on its own version of the new 1.4-litre turbocharged V6 powerplant, it admits that not being able to pit it against the three established manufacturers on track next year will prevent it from learning some of the development tricks it expects the 'big three' to pick up.

"There are both advantages and disadvantages of participating from 2014," motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai told the FIA's official publication Auto, "Many things will happen during the F1 season, and we are in a fortunate situation to be able to observe what will happen. However, as we are only able to observe, we cannot physically be at the track to see the problems.

“Other teams can improve on their problems and progress as the race goes on. How they will progress will be a mystery to us and our engineers must rely on their imaginations."

McLaren will start next season with the new driver pairing of Jenson Button and rookie Kevin Magnussen, but will have to complete one further year with long-standing engine partner Mercedes before being able to make the switch to Honda. Both McLaren and Honda, however, believe that their historical success together will make the transition as smooth as possible.

The pair's previous five-year partnership, which included the successful but volatile pairing of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna behind the wheel, produced no fewer than eight world championships, as well as 44 race wins, 53 pole positions and 30 fastest laps - in just 80 grands prix. The 1988 season was the most dominant in history, with McLaren winning all but one of the 16 races, and only losing a grip on the other when Senna collided with a slower car in Italy.

“Whilst both companies are fully aware that we're embarking on a very demanding journey together, we're hugely committed to the success of the partnership, and we'll spend the next 18 months working together to ensure that we're fully established and competitive ahead of our first grand prix together in 2015,” team principal Martin Whitmarsh said in May.

“The names of McLaren and Honda are synonymous with success in F1 and, for everyone who works for both companies, the weight of our past achievements together lies heavily on our shoulders. But it's a mark of the ambition and resolve we both share that we want once again to take McLaren-Honda to the very pinnacle of F1 success. Together we have a great legacy – and we're utterly committed to maintaining it.”

Arai, too, believes the combination of past success and determination to succeed again will put the pairing in a good position when they finally come together on track.

"We have had a great history together, but more important is the mutual respect we have for each other's work ethic and processes,” he concluded, “We have the same mentality or feel when we pursue victory and that is very important."

Source;
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/198825/1/honda-fears-falling-behind.html

Autoblog: Honda to spool up turbos, workforce with F1 tech

by Noah Joseph of www.autoblog.com

Honda has had a longer and more tumultuous relationship with Formula One than just about any other automaker. It had only been building cars for four years before it entered F1 in 1964 as the first Japanese team in the series, winning its first race the following season but shuttering the program a few years later. Honda came back to power the likes of Williams and McLaren to several World Championships in the '80s and '90s, but things took a downturn when it started a partnership and ultimately took over British American Racing. After pouring untold billions into the effort, the economy tanked, and Honda ultimately sold the team, which subsequently claimed the championship – under new ownership and Mercedes power. Now Honda is gearing up to return in 2015 with a new turbocharged V6 hybrid powertrain it's supplying initially to McLaren, which in turn is switching back to Honda from nearly two decades with Mercedes.

So why return to F1 now? That's precisely what Autoblog asked Honda's Global President and Chief Executive Takanobu Ito (pictured above with McLaren chief Martin Whitmarsh) while visiting his office in Tokyo. While he wouldn't reveal specifics (like when his company's new engine would be available to other teams, as it most certainly will in the long run), Ito-san was clearly happy to discuss the motivation behind the move and the value he feels it brings to the company and its products.

Ito pointed toward the proliferation of motors within Honda's powertrains as a development he hopes to take to road from track

Aside from the recovery of the economic collapse that prompted Honda's withdrawal from the series (much as it did for Toyota and BMW), Ito says the prime consideration for the company's return to the series was the motivation it brings to his employees. After spending a few days in Japan ahead of this week's Tokyo Motor Show, it's all the more evident to this writer how central a role honor and pride of work play in Japanese culture, and competing at the top level of motorsports is something which Ito feels will drive his company and the people behind it to excel.

Another prime consideration Ito cited was the shift in focus on the part of the FIA under Jean Todt's leadership to make F1 more technologically relevant to manufacturers. A hybrid six-cylinder engine is of course more closely associated to most mass-production engines than a high-revving V12, V10 or even V8 engine – configurations which Honda has historically avoided. In particular, Ito pointed toward the proliferation of electric motors within Honda's powertrains as a development which he hopes to take to road from track.

While avoiding specifics, Ito implied that Honda could use electric motors to combat turbo lag by spooling up the turbocharger electrically and capturing the power generated upon winding down to help spool it back up again when needed. So while motivation itself may be Honda's prime motivation in getting back into the pinnacle series of motor racing, there may be more direct and tangible benefits yet to come.

Source;
http://www.autoblog.com/2013/11/22/honda-f1-tech-electric-turbos-ito/

This McLaren-Honda F1 Documentary Has All The Greats And A Concerto

Welcome to Sunday Matinee, where we highlight classic car reviews or other longer videos I find on YouTube. Kick back and enjoy this blast from the past.

There's still nothing as captivating as a long video with great footage from the early 1990s and that legendary time for F1 – with names like McLaren, Honda and Senna.

This look at the McLaren-Honda days is narrated by someone who must intend this to be an informational video for elementary school viewers and even the smallest F1 fan probably won't learn anything they didn't from the commentary. However, it's an extensive look into the team and the daily lives of drivers at the track which turns out to be kind of fascinating in this case.

The narrator also talks a lot about tires and it sounds like he could say, "There it is again!" at any moment.

Then there's this one-on-one interview with Ayrton Senna where he spends a lot of time thinking before saying something good. Riveting.

Also, you get to see a lot of Honda Concertos in this. They must've really been pushing the performance of that car way back when. Zero to 60 in under 10 seconds! And it sounds like they forced them on new drivers as company cars. Then you worked up to a real car, like a new Legend. Those were the days.

Thanks for the tip, Nick!

Source;
http://jalopnik.com/this-mclaren-honda-f1-documentary-has-all-the-greats-an-1448762815