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Honda will judge progress in Abu Dhabi

Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai says the engine manufacturer will judge its progress over the last 12 months at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

With McLaren switching to Honda power this season, the first time the team ran a version of the power unit was during a two-day test following the last race of 2014 at the Yas Marina Circuit. Stoffel Vandoorne ran an updated MP4-29 carrying the Honda unit, though running was very limited for the team.

One year on, Honda has endured a difficult season but Arai says the focus needs to be on how far the power unit has come since its first track running in Abu Dhabi.

“Using the same power unit as [Brazil] and we want to know how the progress has been during the season,” Arai said when asked for the targets at the final race. “Abu Dhabi was our first time on the track last year as McLaren-Honda. We are still far away from the top or middle teams but we want to confirm how much progress has been made over that year.”

And Arai predicts a more productive winter this season having already spent a year working with McLaren and identifying where improvements are required.

“Already the team knows where are the strong points and where are the weak points. So we will improve the weak points and catch up with the other teams. Maybe after that we get stronger and more competitive. The concept is already one we have shared, discussed and confirmed.”

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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.