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[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Coulthard to Honda: 'This is not Formula Excuse, it is F1!'

David Coulthard is unimpressed with Honda's efforts this year, believing things are coming to a head with partner McLaren, with a divorce between the two parties the most probable outcome if the situation isn't reversed.

Speaking in Baku yesterday during a PR visit to the Azerbaijan venue, the man who raced for McLaren from 1996 to 2004 offered his view on his team's current state of affairs.

There is a real concern," Coulthard told AutosportME.

"This is the third year of the relationship; it's fine to say, 'OK, it's building years for Honda, they didn't have as long as other manufacturers,' but this is not Formula Excuse, it is Formula 1.

"You either deliver or you go and do something else."

Coulthard underlines the repercussions on several levels which have hit McLaren.

"This has had a very detrimental effect on McLaren's team spirit, the sponsors and partners that they have been able to have.

"There has obviously been turmoil in the management and a restructuring there and no-one takes pleasure in seeing such a great, historic team going through such difficulties.

"Clearly there have been communication difficulties because if Honda had communicated correctly with McLaren as to where they were with the performance of the engine, why would you ever put that in your car until such time as it is developed sufficiently to be competitive?

"You can't afford to have one bad season in Formula 1, never mind two – or even three, as it's looking like being this year."

With regard to what may be in store tomorrow for McLaren, the Scot says that Honda's deficit will either be reversed or McLaren would run the risk of putting its future in jeopardy.

"They have to have all focus of performance on Honda. If they're not able to set targets and meet those targets – because clearly they haven't met them from last year to this year.

"Rumor has it they have even less power than they had last year and there's reasons and excuses because of reliability but that doesn't cut it.

"Performance is the only thing that cuts in Formula 1 and if Honda are not able to meet those performance criteria, they have to seek a divorce.

"Otherwise, it could continue to bring the team of McLaren the car builder down. Without a good power partner, you have nothing."

 

Sad znam zašto Meklaren priča o FE..

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

All options on the table for Honda fix - McLaren
Monday, 20 March 2017
By Chris Medland / Images by LAT


McLaren executive director Zak Brown says all options are on the table in terms of finding a short-term fix to its current problems with power unit partners Honda.

Having expected to make a step forward over the winter, Honda suffered a number of reliability problems during pre-season testing while also failing to deliver outright performance. McLaren ended testing with the lowest mileage of any team and a clear deficit to its rivals, leading the team to sound out the possibility of a power unit deal with Mercedes.

As any contact with Mercedes was only informal in nature, Brown says the focus is on finding a lasting solution with Honda but admits McLaren needs a quick fix.


McLaren-Honda's Zak Brown

"Our communications are with Honda and we're trying to figure out with Honda what's the best long-term strategy but also we need some short-term results," Brown told RACER during an exclusive interview. "So I'm going to keep our solutions that we're working on with Honda to ourselves – we're going to be a good partner to them and work through the various scenarios. But we need to fix our situation quickly, so we're looking at all the different ways to do that."

Asked if the investment Honda has made in McLaren makes it harder to consider a switch to a different power unit supplier, Brown replied: "100%.

"They're great partners and great people. They'll get this right, we just need to do it as quickly as possible and explore all the different ways in which we can be as competitive as possible. Because we're very loyal to Honda but we have other partners who are expecting results, so we need to take care of our Honda partnership but we also need to take care of our Chandons, NTTs, Johnnie Walkers and SAPs of the world. They want some results."

Despite the current problems being faced by McLaren-Honda, Brown insists the partnership is still the right way for the team to achieve its target of winning the world championship again.

"Well, we want to win races, but we want to win races with Honda. I think the decision to go with Honda – which was pre-my time – was the right decision. I think at the end of the day you have to be a works team to win championships. Maybe not races – the other engines out there are very good and there are teams out there who are running at the front with customer engines.

"We've got a long history with Honda, they're spending what it takes, they're committed, so they're the right partner. We've just got a technical glitch that we need to work through very, very quickly."

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

 

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti and legendary driver and constructor Bruce McLaren are the newest inductees into the Auto Racing Hall of Fame at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. They were voted into the prestigious pantheon by a panel of auto racing journalists, participants and historians.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Honda's head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa believes supplying a second customer team would help the Japanese manufacturer respond to problems more quickly.

McLaren has had an exclusive partnership with Honda since 2015, but the supplier has struggled since returning to F1. While last year saw an improvement from ninth place in the constructors' championship to sixth, McLaren looks unlikely to be able to repeat that result due to a lack of reliability and performance from the power unit during pre-season testing.

The eight days of testing saw Honda complete a total of just 425 laps – the lowest of any engine manufacturer – while Renault managed 1,865 laps. The French manufacturer also had reliability issues and only managed an average of a little over 621 laps per team, but having three teams to supply aided its learning.

Asked if supplying a second team would also help Honda react more quickly to the problems it suffered during testing, Hasegawa told RACER: "Yes.

"Yeah, I think so. If we had more samples it is better. But to do that we need more resources in terms of engineers and currently we are not ready for that, but maybe we need to be ready."

While more customer teams would have helped to give Honda additional track time, it finds itself in a similar situation to previous seasons following a winter of struggle. Hasegawa says he is trying to use last season's power unit improvement as motivation for his employees to replicate that progress despite recent criticism from Fernando Alonso over the lack of performance.

"The top teams delivered a [high] level and last year we started [low] and we were improving. The ratio was very positive, but because we have changed the concept perhaps we [have leveled out for a while] and still we have a lot more room to catch up.

"But of course Fernando expects it like this [rapid improvement] and we should be. So we have to show our good performance, not just with words. That's more important."

In McLaren's race preview, Hasegawa says the Australian Grand Prix should show some improvement from Honda as a result of the work undertaken since the end of testing.

"In terms of performance, there has been room for improvement with mapping in order to have better driveability, and with further analysis we were able to make additional changes to be ready for Melbourne. We know we are heading in the right direction and we'll continue our efforts in order to increase our competitiveness throughout the season."

 

Jebiga, moram:

 

[4_Webber]

Kako god okrenes, najebali smo. Vidim reprizu Melburna 2015. Jedan auto se raspadne pre pocetka trke, drugi ide u ditjun modu celu trku i bude sporiji 4 sekunde po krugu.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Honda needs to embrace F1 culture - McLaren's Eric Boullier
By Ben Anderson
Published on Wednesday March 22nd 2017


A better understanding of the racing culture in Formula 1 is the main thing Honda needs to improve its flagging fortunes in F1, according to McLaren racing director Eric Boullier.

Honda has endured a difficult return to F1 since pairing up with McLaren ahead of the 2015 season, and it looks set for another troubled campaign in 2017 after a disastrous eight days of pre-season testing in Spain.

Relations with McLaren have become strained in recent weeks, as McLaren faces the prospect of another season of poor results.

Honda has appeared reluctant to embrace outside influences on its nascent F1 programme, and Boullier said Honda has so far failed to fully grasp the speed and accuracy of development required to be successful in F1, which is the main thing holding the project back.

"They only need one thing, which is to understand and integrate the F1 racing culture," Boullier told Autosport.

"What I mean by that is: the way we behave in racing and Formula 1 is all driven by a calendar, by some fixed targets, fixed dates, lap time gains; we always try to go to the best solution as fast as possible.

"Where a car manufacturer is running a project, you can have a few weeks delay and it's not going to change the product, it's not going to change the business model.

"In racing, if you don't bring your upgrade for race one, in race one you will be nowhere.

"That is this racing mentality. It's as far as going to suppliers and making sure that if they do something in one month, the next time they do it in three weeks, and from three weeks to two weeks.

"We value more the time gained than the money spent. This is a different approach from the rest of the world."

Honda has invested in a remote engine workshop in Milton Keynes, but Boullier reckons keeping its main base in Japan, and working to the corporate culture of the parent motor company, means the F1 operation is too slow to cope with the demands of modern grand prix racing.

"This is why Mercedes is based in England, and I guess they benefit from the supply chain, from people with experience of F1," Boullier added.

"Our suppliers maybe cost twice as much [as Honda's] but are three, four, five times faster.

"In some ways you can realise the corporate influence is not helping to be efficient.

"The more you behave like a corporate company, the more process inherited from a corporate company, the slower you are, the less agile you are, which doesn't fit the racing culture."

 

To je ono sto ja pricam vec 3 godine - Honda MORA da isporuci motor koji radi 100% pouzdano vec prvog dana testiranja. Oni umesto toga rade na tome da na zadnjoj trci sezone budu u rangu sa najboljim.

 

U F1 rezultat je sve - Honda to ne ume ili ne zeli da razume.

[vrebac]

Jel vi zbilja mislite da neko može mečku stići u istim uslovima

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Stici - da. Prestici - to je vec drugi par gaca.

 

Po osnovnim zakonima fizike iz odredjene kolicine energije pod odredjenim uslovima maksimalno je moguce iscediti odredjenu idealnu kolicinu performansi.

 

Ako su pravila stabilna i ne menjaju se, uz konstantan razvoj, vremenom bi se performanse svih proizvodjaca priblizile idealnim performansama, i razlike medju njima bi prakticno nestale. Mnogo je lakse zatvoriti razliku izmedju 0% i 99% od idealnog nego od 99% do 100%, i samim tim u jednom momentu dalji napredak Mercedesa na planu motora postaje nemoguc, dok ostali imaju "lufta" da mu se priblize. Kada se stigne na razlike od par procenata (20-30 ks) u performansama motora to se vec da nadoknaditi sasijom i vozackim umecem.

 

Problem je sto Honda ovog momenta zaostaje 120 ks. Takav zaostatak nista ne moze da nadomesti.

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Ejbitibul suoseća se s problemima Honde, ali se i plaši pretnje ako ih sustignu tokom razvoja PJ.
 

Renault says it still does not feel "safe" from rivals Honda, despite the Japanese manufacturer enduring a troubled start to the year.

McLaren-Honda is facing a tough task to catch up after its pre-season testing programme was hit by reliability problems and a lack of power.

Although many are predicting that McLaren is now facing a tough campaign of battling near the back of the grid, Renault says that its own experience of recovering from testing nightmares means it is not relaxing.

Back in 2014, Renault faced huge struggles with setback after setback in testing – but turned its situation around to eventually win races later in the campaign.

Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul, who back at the start of 2014 was team boss of the Renault-powered Caterham team, says he is not writing off Honda just yet.

"Shit can always happen," he told Motorsport.com. "I feel extremely sympathetic of what Honda is going through, including in their relationship with McLaren. It reminds me of something that I myself have experienced.

"I think McLaren needs to stay steady, and Honda needs to remain focused. They have to go through this, and I am sure they have the financial resources and the talent to go through that.

More teams

Abiteboul does, believe, however, that Honda's difficulties have been exacerbated by it only supplying one team – because it limits the mileage that it is able to cover.

"It is a risk analysis, but it is also exploring all the potential failures that could arise – and can always happen based on all the information that we have available," said Abiteboul, whose engines are supplier to Renault, Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

"Having three teams, it is only helping. Logistically it is an extra challenge, because when you have difficulty and you need to control the pool of parts, you need to do that for three teams.

"But, I think it would have been better for Honda. It would accelerate Honda's resolution of the current issues, if they had other customers. But that is up to McLaren and Honda to sort it out."

[vrebac]

Radoje, sve potpisujem....ako treba i pecat.......al to ja i govorim,apsolutnu razliku ce smanjivati,relativnu vec malo teze...tih 20-30 ks ce im biti dovoljno. Mislim,kontam da mecki nerade karoseriju bas inzinjeri iz trabanta.
Bez obzira na sve ja i dalje verujem da honda ima najvise potencijala da prva kolko tolko sustigne merdzana! Nek bude i ova godina zrtvovana za testiranje motora, bolje nego da ko ferari cupkamo jos 10 za svabom

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Fora je u tome sto Honda moze da ceka, njima rezultati nisu bitni koliko to smanjivanje razlike, Meklaren ne moze da ceka, njima rezultati trebaju odmah. To su dve razlicite filozofije razvoja, to je ono sto Bulije gore prica, u F1 moras da ides na maksimalno skracivanje rokova, mora sve da funcionise odmah, nema vremena za natenane testiranje, a Honda se ponasa kao da razvija motor za novi NSX koji ako ne bude spreman za salon automobila u Zenevi bice spreman za Tokio, i gde takvo kasnjenje uopste nije bitno sve dok se novi model na kraju pojavi na trzistu.

 

Rekoh ja, bice na kraju Honda dobra, samo je pitanje hoce li Meklaren preziveti dotle da to doceka. Samo da ne bude ko prosli put, kad je Honda tri godine pekla zanat u Vilijamsu, pa kad ga je konacno ispekla preskocila u Meklaren i izdominirala.

[vrebac]

Jbg,nazalost u pravu si sto se tice pouzdanosti japanaca,al se iskreno nadam da je meklaren suvise vredan brend da bi se tek tako ugasio

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Zek Braun sve vrca od optimizma, postavio visoke ciljeve - prolazak u Q2 i da zavrsimo duzinu trke.
 

McLaren executive director Zak Brown fears his team is set for "a very difficult season" as a result of Honda's power unit performance.

Honda changed its concept in order to allow better development of its power unit and in an attempt to further close the gap to the other manufacturers. Pre-season testing showed the new Honda to be both uncompetitive and unreliable, and while Brown says McLaren is working hard to try and improve the situation he says it is unlikely to allow the team to recover significantly during the season.

"I want the fans to know that we are reacting," Brown (pictured, middle) told RACER during an exclusive interview. "However, it's a big challenge and it's going to look like it's moving slowly. Our coolness – not as in hip but our head down and not too emotional approach – shouldn't be mistaken for how hard everyone is working in here. So I think you may not see lots of progress the first few races because they're back-to-back, they're flyaway – we can't work miracles.

"We've been dealt not a great hand and we're all over it but it's going to take a little bit of time. So I think I would ask the McLaren fans to recognize that there's a lot of people in here working very hard and feel the same pain they do and appreciate their support and need their support. But it's not going to be a quick fix so I'm also not going to sit here and say, 'stay tuned for China, we're going to be back where we want to be.'

"It's going to be a very difficult season for us, I don't know exactly how long that will go but the whole season is going to be a challenge."

Brown expects to be fighting at the back of the grid at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, setting a simple target of trying to get both cars to the finish of the race.

"I don't know how many races we've got there but I would be pleasantly surprised if we made it out of Q1 in Melbourne," he added. "Getting out of Q1 [would be a good result], and seeing the checkered flag. We've got speed and reliability issues so we want to see more speed and we want to see more reliability. So certainly seeing the finish of the race, given that we were only able to put together a dozen laps at any one time, would be great progress. So that would be very encouraging to see that we get our cars to the end of the weekend."

 
Jadni smo i bedni.

 

Odoh sada da budem depresivan.

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 23 March 2017 - 12:33.

[4_Webber]

Nisi valjda ocekivao da mozemo da prodjemo Q1? Od koga da budemo brzi? MOZDA od jednog Zaubera, i to je to.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Nisam ocekivao nista od ovog vikenda, pravo da ti kazem, ja sam barem svoja ocekivanja jasno iskazao jos tokom testiranja. Ali kada ovakve reci dolaze sa samog vrha ekipe to znaci da ni insajderi nemaju nade za boljitak, ne samo za ovaj vikend vec i za ostatak sezone, i da je situacija crnja i od mojih najcrnjih slutnji.

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 23 March 2017 - 13:07.