Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHonda

Podiums ‘a realistic target’ in 2015 - Honda

Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai says aiming for a McLaren to score a podium this season is still “a realistic target”.

McLaren made steady progress on a race-by-race progress at the start of the year, such was the deficit it started with in Melbourne. However, reliability issues halted that momentum after the team scored its first points of the year in Monaco. With Fernando Alonso finishing tenth at Silverstone, there were signs the reliability problems are being overcome and Arai told F1i this year’s targets remain the same.

Asked if he is still aiming for a podium this season, Arai replied: “Yes. I hope so and I wish for it. I think it’s a realistic target.

“I think our power unit concept is good enough to get a podium. Whether it will be soon or we will need more time, I don’t know, but our target has not changed. I think our direction is a very good direction and by changing some areas relating to the combustion we can get some more power.”

Honda has yet to decide if it will introduce performance updates to its power unit in Hungary next weekend as it seeks clarification over the FIA’s allowance of an extra engine this season.

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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.