Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHonda

Honda identifies power unit weakness for 2016

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Honda is working on improving an ERS deployment weakness with its 2016 power unit which it hopes will make it more competitive next year.

McLaren has grown frustrated at a lack of progress this season, with the Honda unit proving uncompetitive and unreliable on many circuits. Motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai says the manufacturer has highlighted its biggest weakness at present and is confident it will not be repeated in 2016.

"We have already found out where our weak point is on the power unit and have already started, for next season, the programs," Arai said.

"As one team, we do our best as McLaren-Honda so I know where there is a weak point on the power unit, and also McLaren do their best to make a good car…"

And Arai says Honda also wants to see progress in the area at every remaining round this season to ensure it is on the right track.

"I could not say anything about future tokens this season but our weak point is in deployment, which the two drivers already knew. It is very difficult. Of course, we want to change it for next year but we want to get a small number in gain on deployment at every race."

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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.