Mercedes' Cowell: 'My money is on Honda and McLaren coming good'

Mercedes engine guru Andy Cowell isn't scrapping McLaren and Honda despite the partnership's failure to yield success.

Cowell is the man at the helm of the German manufacturer's power unit division, and as such has received a good chunk of the credit associated with the Silver Arrows success.

Honda struggled in its first two years of its return to F1, but its different approach this season has not led to a change in fortunes. Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa insists however that it is on the right path, thanks in part to F1 tossing out its engine token system which greatly restricted development.

"The request came from manufacturers in addition to Honda saying, 'Please can we take this crazy token table away because it's bad for the sport?'," Cowell said.

"It's bad if somebody can't train to get better and so we agreed, 'Yes, take the table away, because it's better for the sport'.

"It means that you can innovate, you can introduce whatever you like.

"I think none of us should underestimate the technical prowess of Honda and of McLaren and I think my money is on that combination coming good and coming good pretty quickly."

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With Formula 1 hard at work on the future and its power unit platform beyond 2020, Andy Cowell says the main challenge for the sport will be in achieving the right balance between the technology, its road car relevance and the appeal for the public.

Everybody's expressed their opinion on what 2021 should bring," Cowell commented.

"We need to make sure that the technology that's introduced in Formula 1 in 2021 is ahead of the road car world in 2021 and perhaps mimicking what will be in the showrooms in 2026.

"[And] that it's a lead in to it but there's a whole load of other topics that need to be discussed and the conclusion of the second meeting [held] is that we need to do some more work.

"We need to break out into expert groups and that's not necessarily us, that's people from outside of F1 that understand about engine noise and how that brings pleasure to people that are hearing it, the musicality of it.

"Then [there are] more scientific studies that we will be involved in like removing the MGU-H – we have single turbo or twin turbos.

"The FIA is going to chair several meetings, several working groups that conclude over the summer on that particular subject matter and then in September, bring that back together and try and condense that into one overall package.

"As ever, there will be compromise but I think if we come up with the best package for Formula 1, for the manufacturers, for the fans, for the drivers, for the chassis teams etc then it will be a good step."

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