Honda chasing 'more sophisticated size zero'

Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai says the target for 2016 is to provide a "more sophisticated size zero" concept of its power unit.

The McLaren MP4-30 was launched in January with the 'size zero' philosophy as the car featured a very tightly packaged rear end as a result of the compact Honda power unit. However, reliability issues in the early part of the year resulted in performance limitations throughout 2015, with McLaren scoring a total of just 27 points.

Speaking to F1i as part of an exclusive interview reflecting on the season, Arai says the concept will remain in place for next year.

“We feel a good pressure all the time," Arai said. "Good pressure from both great drivers, also from McLaren. I think it’s a normal situation and we are always having open discussions about what happened, which direction we should go etc.

"It’s very good communication and they understood everything, so we keep the philosophy and concept of the size zero package and we improve on it next year to have a more sophisticated size zero.”

Asked if that means targeting an even smaller power unit design, Arai replied: “It’s very difficult because we’re almost at zero!

"But we use that particular design, a very specific and aggressive design, and we should keep that. We need more improvement but during this year I felt a big improvement on both sides, the engine and the chassis and aero. At every race we tried a lot of parts and we have a lot of data, and I hope that we can make a better package for next year.”

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