F1 News
Honda satisfied with engine progress: "Now everything fits without compromise"
Where McLaren failed, Red Bull have succeeded. McLaren put too much pressure on the Japanese engine manufacturer and no progress was made. But now, in the back of the Red Bull and Toro Rosso, Honda have won races and made podiums during the 2019 Formula 1 season.
Under McLaren, Honda had to find a package that would work with the car. They had to make it too compact which caused overheating. Honda's chief engineer, Masamitsu Motohashi, believes he is satisfied with how the new engines that are in the rear of the RB15s and STR14s.
“It took a long time, but now everything fits without compromise. The package as a whole is well put together. If you look at last season and 2019, you can clearly see that the power has increased. During a race weekend, it also becomes clear that steps have been taken in the area of the chassis. The minor problems we had with the engine were also due to certain strategies. Such things will have to be improved for the second half of the season," Motohashi believes at AutoSportWeb.
Overall, the feedback from drivers has been positive. Max Verstappen complained about some turbo-lag issues early on, but that seems to have improved with recent upgrades.
“In some cases, the power does not seem to come immediately enough when the accelerator pedal is pressed. Not only with Red Bull, but also with Toro Rosso. Both teams had new drivers and so the challenge was to coordinate how the gas pedal should work for each driver. In addition, I wonder if there was a quick enough response to the racing locations themselves. If we had been quicker to respond, we could have solved the problems earlier. Adjusting the cars could, therefore, be a little better, I think," he added.
Following the summer break, Honda will introduce at least one more engine for the 2019 Formula 1 season. While other upgrades have improved reliability, the next engine upgrade is focused purely on performance improvement.
“Reliability has improved considerably since last year's summer break: None of the engines have broken down to the present. So we can now focus on improving the performance of the engine, something that is only possible if you do not encounter major problems. We now have a solid foundation," concluded.