What on Earth is going on at Honda?
Friday, March 23rd, 2007For the second year on the bounce, it looks as if Honda are set to make a slow start to the new Formula One campaign, with the team admitting that their new RA107 car has fallen short of expectations.
“At the moment we are ahead of Red Bull and Toyota, but behind the rest,” said Honda’s senior technical director Shuhei Nakamoto. “I know BMW have been using a non-2007 wing so they may lose one or two tenths, but we will still be behind. It will be a massive struggle to get into Q3.”
Oh dear, here we go again…So much hype, so much promise, so much potential, only to see the team fail time after time.
So the question that needs to be answered is why are Honda continually failing to make decent starts to Formula One campaigns?
In 2004, the team (then BAR) finished superbly, with Jenson Button ending up third in the drivers championship, behind only the dominant Ferrari partership of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, with a noteworthy 85 points, and with BAR second in the constructors championship.
Yet in 2005 with the team openly admitting that the championship was their aim, it took them ten races to rack up any form of points finish. OK, they scored a podium at Imola, but they were disqualified for using an illegal fuel tank which may have allowed them to run their cars underweight during the middle stages of a grand prix. But the key factor here was that in the time it took BAR to score a point, Renault and McLaren were already searing ahead in the constructors race, and in a virtually un-catchable situation. Championship over for BAR.
Then, in 2006, with such a promising pre-season of testing behind them, the team, now Honda, once again struggled to make an impact in the first half of the season, Button only managing a quiet fourth place in Bahrain. The first pole of the year came in Melbourne, but Button was quickly passed by Alonso and rapidly fell down the order before succumbing to engine failure going round the final corner of the final lap.
It was clear that although a quick car in qualifying trim, Honda were unable to produce enough consistent speed during races to enable them to challenge for wins.
The team then went through a rocky mid-season, culminating in a low at Silverstone when Button failed to make it through the first round of qualifying at his home grand prix. However, like 2005, things came good in the latter stages of the season, with Button finally clinching his first race win at the Hungarian Grand Prix in August, and then going on to score more points than anybody in the races following it.
So what has become clear is that Honda are capable of winning a World Championship at some stage, providing they can get their car going in the first few races of the season.
And at the launch of the new RA107 in January, things initially looked bright. The team had produced a decent looking new car that looked a good step forward over the RA106. And the team were able to look back on the final half of the 2006 season, confident they could carry their form forward into the 2007 season. But as soon as the car hit the track in Barcelona testing there was trouble. Button breaking down on his first lap, while Barrichello posted times a good way away from the leading times.
And although at the launch of the new ‘Earth’ livery, Button mentioned that progress had been made, it still seems clear that Honda will not be threatening the front runners in Melbourne. Therefore it would seem that Honda need to get their act together if they are to live up to the hype set up not only by the F1 media (no prizes for who I’m referring to here), but also by themselves. For at the last two launches Honda/BAR have said that they hope to win the championship only to fail spectacularly.
2007 could be a make or break year for the men from Brackley. A world championship is due…
