Fans of the Woking team and Ron Dennis alike will be relieved to hear the latest prognosis of the Honda V6 Turbo Hybrid engine.
The power unit has been both unreliable and slow, though leaked information repeatedly indicates that the problems are primarily with the ERS motor generators.
Yasuhisa Arai tells F1i, “Our goal is to end the first half of the season with precise energy management and full use of the ERS to enable the drivers’ skills to shine through at this circuit.
“The Hungaroring is a twisty track that’s mostly made up of continuous slow- to mid-speed corners and various elevation changes that makes it very difficult to overtake. Each corner is technical and tight, but there is a certain flow to it that makes it different from a stop-and-go circuit”.
“Due to its lack of long straights and full-throttle sectors, this track is less strenuous for the power unit compared to most circuits. However, the frequent undulation requires more precise energy management and deployment at lower gears and corner exits.”
If Honda have resolved the issues that have plagued their MGU-K and MGU-H motors, this would indeed be a significant step forward for the McHonda partnership.
Roll forward a few weeks to Spa and Monza, and we’ll also see how Honda are also faring in the absolute power stakes.
Trust they are not selling dummies to us. Unless the same is demonstrated, its not possible to believe them. After all, Mr. Arai told that they would be competitive from the European leg of the season
Agreed. And we’re less than 48 hours from from knowing… fingers crossed for the dawn of a new player in the season and, perhaps, proof of a different and viable method of applying the technology at hand.
Well at least they don’t have to worry about anymore grid penalties for the use of their ‘free’ power unit.
Bla bla bla. Don’t believe it. Why don’t they just show results and then start talking. I never liked it the other way around. Give people a chance to get you on your own words. I even want to bet that by the end of the season there still not higher than p 10. Unless there is a start crash like Belgium 1998. Than they might have a chance.
Gives* and then* stupid autocorrect
My dear sir, you must realise by now there was a reason why Mr Eric the Believable was employed 😉
Is he related to Eric the Unready?
“If Honda have resolved the issues that have plagued their MGU-K and MGU-H motors”
Do we know it’s the motors and not the inverter, battery or energy management software? As far as I read it’s never been clear it’s the motors except for the pre-sezon tests when the K was leaking. The reason I ask is a faulty inverter can propel a motor into orbit, a faulty battery or bad software can grill an inverter with the can wreak havoc in the ERS system. (a bad turbo design / control can also do all the above)
Why would you need an inverter in the system? Just run it all DC..
The ‘free’ retroactive PU to Honda was a bunch of FIA BS. I’m still baffled why it is so hard to make the MGU-K work? Geez, I think Formula Student was just won by an all-electric car once again. If a bunch of college kids can pull it off…. makes you wonder.
“German students make electric car faster than F1” “Honda make F1 car worse than electric car” 😛
Mate, the F1 MGUK is nothing like any Formula student motor. If aything the fact it needs to be coupled to an ICE makes the whole design far more constrained (oscilations due to the bangs of the ICE). Sure, Toyota have managed it on the Prius 15 years ago, but it’s just not the same. It’s like raging at the recent SpaceX shuttle explosion because a strut failed, the Formula Student sounds like “what they can’t design a dam’ strut, I have them supporting my trunk door since the 1940s…”
Not looking for excuses, but not hiring F1 engineers proves to be a bad idea as it’s just not the same thing. Moreover as I said above we have “zero” confirmation it’s actually the MGU that’s at fault. If your ECU on the car would loose control of the ICE, the motor could blow up; same with an MGU and the press seems to be too unsofisticated to grasp the details.
Actually the MGU-K is *a lot* like a Formula Student motor as the winning team used energy recovery, not just discharge. Yes it is a whole different “level” because the figures we are talking about are so much more intense (smaller size, lighter weight, higher power) but the basic concepts are the same. The control strategies should NOT have been a problem for Honda if they had an integrated chassis-dyno running. Instead it appears from rumors they have been running stand dyno’s and who knows what throttle and braking inputs they are using? They of course should be using a mix of actual data which Mcl would have provided, but the question is, did the Japanese (eg. Honda) over-estimate their own ability to engineer an engine package properly in two years? The answer seems to be yes…
This must mean they moved the head of the Civic Hybrid program to head of motorsports program!!! “VTEC just kicked in yo!”
I think Alonso would kill for a blown Civic motor right now over what he has…
The quotes don’t support the title of the article
Maybe they have got extra funding from ‘quantum’..Eric did love those guys..heyho,lets hope this is not just sponsor talk again
“Quantum McLaren-Honda”.. somewhere, sometime, it is doing well 😛
I suspect it’s too early to talk about this, but at what point will a company like Honda consider pulling out of F1 due to the negative publicity generated by the inept McHonda? Nissan has already made noises that it may pull out of WEC after the inept showing of their front engined LMP1 prototype in 24 hours of Le Mans.