Honda admits Suzuka struggles were unexpected

McLaren’s struggles during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend were unexpected, according to Honda's head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa.

Fresh from a number of competitive races - including scoring points in six of the previous eight rounds - McLaren was expecting another strong performance in Honda’s home race at Suzuka. Boosted by a Honda power unit update introduced at Malaysia on Fernando Alonso's car to avoid a penalty in Japan, expectations were to challenge for points, but McLaren was uncompetitive throughout the weekend as Jenson Button dropped out in Q1 and both drivers finished outside the top 15.

“We did not expect the race to be as difficult as it was in Suzuka, so I am very disappointed,” Hasegawa told F1i. “We still need to analyse the data, but the team belief is that our overall car and package was just not suited to the Suzuka circuit characteristics.”

And while Hasegawa references the extra pressure Honda feels at Suzuka, he says it needs to use the disappointment as motivation to bounce back in future.

“I think that home races are difficult for everyone due to the added pressure. We are all disappointed of course, but the support we receive outweighs the negative. From the team’s point of view, we just have to reflect on what happened at the race, analyse what caused it and move on so that we can do better in the next race and to next year’s Suzuka.”

Button eventually took a power unit penalty after qualifying so low on the grid, meaning he will have the latest specification power unit available to him in Austin.

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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.