Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Honda motivated by ‘very big progress’

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Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai says the engine manufacturer can take motivation from the progress it showed in the opening four races of the season.

While only one McLaren completed the Australian Grand Prix and was well off the pace, the team improved its competitiveness in Malaysia but both cars were forced to retire. Honda then rectified some reliability issues which resulted in its first two-car finish in China before Fernando Alonso was just one place outside the points in Bahrain.

Arai told F1i the improvements made from one weekend to the next give Honda confidence in the project having started so far off the pace in Melbourne.

“The first four races, I feel a big progress step by step and race by race,” Arai said. “Some races have been a big step up and some races were just a few days apart have seen very small steps but we’ve made very big progress in the four races.

“In Australia it was an unexpected situation. But that was the starting point and now it’s a big step up, a jump up and I think it’s a bit of a success story in a way.”

And Arai says the break between races will be helpful for Honda but won’t allow it to address all of its issues ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

“We need more time than just these three weeks. Of course we have many plans to improve and apply more steps but maybe we will have a more competitive situation - I hope - in Barcelona.”

Click here for a look at the radical Honda power unit design

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.