Tag: mclaren-honda

Button hints at F1 exit, Suzuka announcement expected – “the joy is gone”

Amidst increased swirling speculation regarding his Formula One career, Jenson Button has admitted that the “joy” of competing in F1 is no longer there and has hinted at exiting the sport.

The British driver has always said that the moment he no longer enjoys being behind the wheel of a Formula One car, he would cal it a day. He also insinuated that he would like to make an announcement at this coming weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix – which he considers a second home race.

Although McLaren holds the option on Button for the 2016 season and holds the final say over whether he will stay, the team’s financial situation and being keen on bringing his salary down will most likely force them to rethink their future plans. Button will not be keen to stay on at a lower salary with the struggling McLaren-Honda outfit and struggle at the back of the field.

“My head knows but my mouth and tongue doesn’t know. The joy of being in the car is only there if you’re fighting at the front and you feel as though you are achieving something,,” Button said to British media.

“If you’re fighting near the back, you’re driving an F1 car, but you can easily get joy driving something else. The joy you get is from competing. It’s about fighting at the front.

“It’s about the possibility of standing on top of the podium. That’s the joy of F1.”

Button indicated that while meetings will still need to take place with McLaren, his mind was made up and he’d like to make an announcement at Suzuka.

“I have made that decision, that’s the important thing,” he said. “It is always nice to make an announcement when you are at your home grand prix, but I don’t know what’s happening yet.

“There are a lot of meetings in Japan, Ron Dennis and Eric Boullier will be there. I’m sure there will be a lot of meetings at the headquarters.”

Should Button leave, the vacant seat will almost certainly belong to either reserve Kevin Magnussen, or test and development driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who is also the runaway leader in the 2015 GP campaign.

September 22, 2015
Double Engine Changes for McLaren at Spa

The McLaren F1 team is planning to make a double engine change this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix following their engine upgrades over the summer break.

McLaren have used 3 engine upgrade tokens and are planning to use those engines on both their cars during the first free practice session on Friday. This will make it engine number 7 for Alonso and Button which will drop Button 5 places, due to the fact that he’s already on his 7th turbo charger and 7th MGU-H, and Alonso 10 places. The big drop for Alonso comes as a result of him only being on his 6th engine, turbo and MGU-H.

After the 1st practice session Honda will assess the engine performance. This can be quite a lengthy process and it is expected that Honda will give the drivers their 8th engine which will drop them to the back of the grid.

With the old rules a double engine change would mean that both McLaren drivers will start from the back of the grid and would have had to take a drive through penalty or stop-go penatly during the race. The new rules are more simpler and once a driver has reached the back of the grid, no further penalties will be applied.

McLaren are hopeful that the engine upgrades will bring with it a step up in performance. The team is optimistic about the changes. Jenson Button, although sharing in the teams optimism, remains cautious.

“I think we have to wait and see,” he said. “You don’t really know until you drive it. There are some long straights here as well.

“Hopefully we can see tomorrow how much it is giving us, as it is obviously a long lap. There is lots of time at full throttle.”

August 20, 2015
Honda promises more power

F1 engine manufacturer Honda has promised to increase the power of its engine over the course of the next few races in the hopes of easing the increasing pressure on McLaren to perform.

The McLaren-Honda partnership has managed to score only four points so far this season while suffering from ongoing reliability issues. The team felt the blow of a double retirement at the Canadian Grand Prix with the race exposing just how far behind Honda from its rivals in terms of power. Both McLarens were running at around 35km/h slower than the leading cars on straights and also had issues with fuel efficiency during the race.

Honda used up two power unit development tokens coming into the Canadian Grand Prix with Honda boss Yasuhisa Arai saying there is more development on the way.

“On the power unit side, we will see more horsepower in the near future by using the tokens and step-by-step up the horsepower in the next few races,” he said. “We are working very hard as one team, not only on the power unit but also aerodynamics and chassis.

“We have seen good progress in those two areas [aerodynamics and chassis] between Australia and Canada and maybe in a few more and in the second half of the season we can achieve top level performance and compete with the top level teams.”

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has admitted that pressure is mounting on the team. “There is pressure, it’s normal,” he said. “We are all competitors and we want to win and be competitive, so there is pressure on Honda, McLaren and our shoulders.

“Like any company in the world they [the board] come to visit us, which is good support, and they are here also to understand. We have a duty to report, which is normal, but we don’t have an extraordinary pressure. We are transparent enough for them to know what we are doing and we hope that we know what we are doing as well.”

Boullier did admit though that both the Honda power unit and the McLaren chassis are currently behind in comparison with their current leading rivals.

“If you want to win, you have to be the best everywhere. In terms of aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics, chassis, power unit and drivability – we have to improve everywhere. We are lacking in downforce to be the top chassis, so we have to work on this and make it better. It’s a new concept, a new philosophy this year and on the Honda side there is of course more work to be done in terms of performance.”

McLaren photo credits: McLaren-Honda

Eric Boullier photo: Sky F1 screengrab

June 16, 2015
No Frustration for Alonso after Retiring From Canadian Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso insists that his frustrations as McLaren did not boil over during the race.

The Spaniard ended his Canadian Grand Prix campaign early after retiring on lap 46 with an exhaust related issue. But even before that he was heard on the radio during the race venting his frustrations to the team.

When his race engineer asked him to save fuel Alonso replied with a defiant “I don’t want. I don’t want. His engineer then replied and told him that they will have bigger problems later in the race if he does not save fuel. Alonso replied with: “I already have big problems now. Driving like this and looking like amateurs. So I’ll race and then I’ll save fuel.”

When asked about his radio message after the race Alonso insisted that it was not because he was frustrated with the situation.

“No frustration, it was just I had some battles going on, I had to save fuel, save tyres and after three or four reminders I said ‘First, let me race because it is my good motivation now, as we have cars around and then at the end if we are on our own, we save fuel then’,” he said speaking to Sky Sports F1.

“But we know the situation, it is what it is, and what we need to do is work harder than ever because we want to change the situation. All the things I see for future races make sense, I see some positive signs that everything that is coming makes sense.”

Despite this he remains positive and he is very optimistic at future developments McLaren are bringing to the car despite his third consecutive retirement from a race.

“Obviously, I’m a little bit sad to have suffered a third consecutive retirement. I lost power and I had to pit, and that was it,” he said after the race.

“Definitely, we need to put some things in order – we know the situation for what it is but what we have to do now is work harder than ever because we want to change the situation more than ever.”

“All the developments I know are coming for future races make sense, so I can see positive signs. I think we need to be patient now, and we need to continue to work incredibly hard.”

Photo Credit: McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team

June 8, 2015
Alonso eyeing points in Monaco

Fernando Alonso is eyeing to score his first points for the season at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix and is optimistic that McLaren can challenge for points.

McLaren has had a dismal start to their season and is yet to score a point since reuniting with Honda at the start of 2015. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Alonso progressed through to Q2 during qualifying but retired from the race when a visor tear-off strip caused a brake failure. His team mate Jenson Button also had a very difficult run, labeling the car as being “scary to drive” and finished in 16th position.

Alonso however is hopeful that McLaren-Honda can compete for a top 10 postition around the streets of Monte Carlo.

“Monaco is one of those circuits that’s in its own league,” Alonso said. “Although it’s almost impossible to overtake there, it still produces one of the most impressive and exciting shows on the Formula 1 calendar.

“As a circuit and as a place, it’s completely unique, and this is what makes it so special. There are three areas you have to focus on for this Grand Prix – qualifying, concentration, and strategy.

“Saturday is where you can increase your chances of getting a good result from the weekend, so this will be our first objective, and I’m hopeful we can continue to strengthen our qualifying performance and improve our starting position.

“On Sunday, the most important thing is concentration – the streets are so narrow and twisty that there is no margin for error – so if you can do this and also maximise your strategy, you have the best chance of moving up the order by the end of the race.

“My home race in Barcelona was obviously a frustrating weekend for the whole team; we were unlucky with how my race ended and we firmly believed we could’ve achieved a positive result there.

“Our fighting spirit is still strong though, and we’re determined to take that to Monaco and see how much progress we can make there. I’m hopeful our car will perform better there than in Spain, and we’ll be pushing again to get into the points.”

Fernando Alonso Photo Credit: McLaren F1

May 18, 2015
Honda finalising development plan: We need more horsepower

Honda plan to spend some of their nine allocated development tokens on boosting maximum horsepower by looking into different concepts around combustion in the next few months.

The engine manufacturer – who only supply McLaren – only entered the sport this season and therefore have less engine tokens compared to their rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault. Planning how to spend these tokens will be key to improvement throughout the season but Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai believes they have established the key areas where there are weaknesses and tokens can be well spent on improving.

“We don’t have the complete plan yet as to how to use the tokens, which areas and when,” said Arai.

“We have already confirmed which areas are the most effective, and I know we are making a plan to apply race-by-race how many tokens we spend.

“One area where we are weak is horsepower – we need more horsepower.

“So one area to use the tokens is combustion, and the MGU-K and MGU-H because energy is a very important part.

“Combustion and energy recovery systems are very important.”

When asked what Honda needed to change to achieve their goal, Arai said: “Maybe we need to change the combustion concept, or the turbocharger, or the camshaft, those kind of parts.

“We should try to change the combustion concept because maybe the other power-unit suppliers are always thinking about better combustion characteristics.

“Every day, on the research and development side they are thinking about it, working on or testing a new combustion concept to get more horsepower to immediately apply that.

“Maybe that’s the area to use the tokens.”

The Barcelona in-season test following a very difficult Spanish Grand Prix was quite successful for McLaren and Honda. Jenson Button had described his car has being ‘scary to drive’ during the race but he managed to complete 100 laps without any problems during the test.

Arai also confirmed that Button and his team mate Fernando Alonso should find that they’ll experience “more controlled driveability” from the Honda engine for the upcoming races in Monaco and Canada.

May 18, 2015
FIA still investigating Alonso incident

The FIA’s Charlie Whiting has confirmed that F1’s governing body is still investigating the circumstances surrounding Fernando Alonso’s mysterious Barcelona test crash last month.

Alonso will be sitting out the Australian Grand Prix after hitting the wall on 22 Feb, amid plenty of speculation about what actually happened and about his medical condition.

McLaren initially claimed that the MP4-30 was hit by a gust of wind but speculation is rife and many believe that there is more to the accident than they are willing to divulge. Some drivers have sinced raised concerns about the safety of McLaren-Honda’s MP4-30 package but Whiting has confirmed that the FIA is investigating the Alonso accident.

“We are working with McLaren and our medical department is still looking at all the information we can find,” Whiting told the media on Thursday.

“We are still talking to McLaren about anything mechanical. Our medical department is talking to people who treated him in hospital and that is really all I can say on that.

“We can’t put a timeframe on it,” he added.

When asked about the rumours surrounding the incident – which include Alonso being shocked by the McLaren-Honda’s electronic system, or a technical failure, or whether Alonso had a pre-existing medical condition caused him to lose consciousness – Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel said that he had no concerns about any of the cars not being safe enough.

“I think nobody wants to send us on the track when they believe that something is not right,” he said during Thursday’s press conference.

“I think we have far too much of a team spirit, in all of the teams I would say, to let that happen. So when the team decides that it’s safe to run, it’s safe to run.”

Fernando Alonso Photo Credit: McLaren-Honda

March 12, 2015
Ricciardo Takes the Honour on Second Day of Barcelona Test

Daniel Ricciardo finished on top of the time sheets for Red Bull on the second day of the second pre-season test in Barcelona.

Ricciardo set his time of 1:24.574 just before the lunch break on the soft compound tyres. This time stood for the rest of the day. Second for the day was Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen who was just 0.010s off Ricciardo’s pace. Third for the day was Williams’ Felipe Massa who was just 0.098s off the pace. It was very close at the top today with the top three just separated by 0.1s.

Sergio Perez ended his day in 4th with a time of 1:24.702 for Force India. Lewis Hamilton who was not scheduled to drive today got behind the wheel of the W06 in the afternoon session and managed 5th fastest for the day and also managed to complete and impressive 89 laps despite not feeling well. Nico Rosberg drove the morning session and was 6th fastest for the day. He handed over to Hamilton so as to not further aggravate his inflamed nerve on his neck.

Despite the ERS issue on the McLaren, Fernando Alonso managed to complete 59 laps today with his fastest being a 1:25.961. Although well off the pace of the front running cars it is encouraging news for the Woking outfit and for Honda.

Jolyon Palmer had his debut for Lotus today. He finished 8 fastest. Marcus Ericsson finished 9th for Sauber and Carlos Sainz Jr finishing the slowest on the day. Sainz Jr clocked up 100 laps today despite a big off at the very fast T9 right hander.

It was a very strong showing from Red Bull, Williams and Ferrari. Although they may not show it, Mercedes are becoming increasingly weary about the pace of those three teams and will be watching them closely. There is no doubt that the other teams have stepped up their game but something tells me we have not yet seen the absolute pace of the Mercedes cars just yet.

Below are the unofficial times from day 2 of the second pre-season test:

Photo Credit: Infinity Red Bull Racing Formula 1 Team

February 20, 2015
FIA Turn Around on Honda Engine Development

The FIA have reversed their decision to allow in-season engine development for McLaren’s new engine partner, Honda.

The 2015 rules for engine homologation were left open after Ferrari’s James Allison pointed out that nowhere in the 2015 rules does it state that teams have to submit their homologated engines for the 2015 season. The deadline for the teams last year was 28 February 2014. The FIA conceded that the rules were open to interpretation and allowed engine manufacturers, namely Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari, to develop their engines up to 32 development tokens.

Honda were left out the equation as the FIA felt that since all teams had to homologate their engines last year, its only fair for Honda to do the same this year despite it not stating this anywhere in the rules.

As to be expected, Honda were not pleased with the decision and met with the FIA this past week. The result of the meeting was that Honda are now allowed to develop their engine during the season but with a few caveats.

Honda will be able to develop their engine calculated by the average number of unused tokens by the other manufacturers before the first race of the season on 16 March 2015.

It is unclear how many tokens Honda will have but it is believed that they will have a considerable amount to develop their engine throughout the season.

January 17, 2015
McLaren-Honda and Ferrari set to launch in late January

The McLaren Formula One Team looks set to launch its Honda powered 2015 car at an event at their Woking headquarters on 29 January. According to various international media sources, the new Ferrari will be presented either a day earlier, or a day later.

While McLaren intend hosting an event to unveil their car, Ferrari’s launch is likely to only be a release of multimedia items on the internet, according to Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Reports are in that the Ferrari livery will again be red and white with a dash of black carbon and the La Gazzetta report added that sources at Maranello are suggesting that the latest wind tunnel results are “encouraging”.

“There is optimism that much of the aerodynamic deficit has been bridged,” La Gazzetta reported.

“And combined with the political victory on the engine side that will improve performance and economy, there is a feeling of moderate optimism.”

The report went on to say that the project, codenamed ‘666’ will be launched between the 28th and the 30th of January, with the exact date “depending on the assembly of the car”.

Photo Credit: Mclaren-Honda

January 9, 2015