Two days after the Hungarian Grand Prix, and the Hungaroring paddock is still bustling. Usually, the race between teams to pack up and head home after a grand prix is as competitive as the on-track action, but Hungary is different: most of the teams stay on at the circuit for an ultra-rare in-season test.
Walk through that paddock, dodging teams shuffling tyres or unpacking crates containing new parts for testing, and you’ll find a small cherry blossom, pristinely maintained and fully in bloom, positioned carefully right outside Honda’s hospitality unit.
It’s a bit of national symbolism: to the Japanese, sakura represent the beauty and fragility of life, a sign of renewal and a reminder of the fleeting nature of life.
There are more cherry blossoms inside the hospitality unit, alongside symbolic motifs: the dining tables have been finished with a river-style design and in the corner is a coffee table made from 50,000-year-old kauri wood. The unit is designed to house the 20 or so Honda engineers who attend each grand prix and the firm’s various guests, and the overall vibe is calm and peaceful – an incongruous contrast to the music loudly blaring from a multi-storey behemoth of a unit next door.
That would be the Red Bull Energy Station, a hospitality unit so large it takes 32 trucks to transport it to a race and travels with its own catering unit to feed the team who spend three days assembling it ahead of every grand prix.
Despite the differences, the occupants of those two hospitality units are now bound together. After three tortuously difficult years with McLaren ended in a messy public split, Honda has been supplying power units to Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s junior team, this year. Next year, Red Bull’s main team will also use Honda power.
The McLaren-Honda relationship started in 2015 amid huge expectations shaped by memories of their previous union, from 1988 until 1992, which netted four drivers’ and four constructors’ world championships. The reunion caused such hype that many overlooked the form of Honda’s works team, which sheepishly quit Formula 1 at the end of 2008 after a dismal showing.
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I have read your article very carefully. I found this as an interesting and informative article.
Honda
Not the best time for Honda engine article with Alonso breaking down after just 9 laps at Monza and Gasly scrapping a 14th
xxxx wrote:
Apologies but Alonso now has a Renault engine and it’s scraping not scrapping.
Apart from that it’s accurate
Honda built some of the best F1 engines
They will succeed with Red Bull Racing. They have shown their engineering brilliance in every era of F1. Their 1.5L V6 turbos, V10s, and V12s of the late 80s and early 90s were best in class. Their naturally aspirated V10s and V8s were always a top 2 engine. Their last foray as a constructor, wasn't as successful though, but once they improved their aero for their 2009 car, they dominated, albeit with a different engine.
In this current era of F1, Honda started even further back than the year of their return would suggest. Before their announcement with McLaren for a return to F1 in 2013, they would have had a prototype running by 2012 at the earliest. After several years consulting with the existing engine manufacturers - Mercedes, Ferrari, and Renault - the FIA announced the new PU format in 2011. You can bet those manufacturers already had advanced prototypes running during those years of consultation. Upon its return in 2015, Honda also had to homologate its 1st generation PU - before it was even raced. Crucially, everyone else had a whole season of competition to iron-out defects and improve their PUs. Add to that, the development token penalty system, and McLaren's "size zero" concept, and Honda were significantly restricted with its development.
With the development token and size zero shackles off, Honda were free to develop their desired 2nd generation PU, which has steadily shown good progress. Their first year with it in 2017 was also going to naturally show issues, but only its second year, it's already matched Renault's performance - perhaps even bettered judging on performances in Spa and Monza - and arguably bettered Renault's reliability too. Ferrari and Mercedes will still be significantly ahead, but at this rate, I'd expect Honda will close the gap to them even further in its PU's third year.