Possibly the great unknown of the season 2018 is the performance that will provide Honda with his new team: Toro Rosso. The Italian formation is already the newest partner to the japanese after the exchange with McLaren, which will receive the Renault engines, but many fear it could pose a calvary similar to the one suffered by Woking in the last three years.
Honda decided mid-2016 to completely modify the engine for the next season, but the project was hampered by a delayed decision and errors of calibration and interpretation of data in the dynamometer. The result was a pre-season is unmerciful and frightening for McLaren, which was not straighten up at all during the competition.
But that does not prevent him to Yusuke Hasegawa, who will leave the control of the project to Toyoharu Tanabe January 1, to be optimistic and say that it can be an interesting option to start the season 2018 with the propellant of this year. “it Is a great help to keep the same engine concept. We need more performance and reliability. The exact specification of the next season is not decided yet, but at least we have a backup plan, which is the engine of 2017. So I’m sure we can make a good start to the season that comes”.
In statements to Autosport, Hasegawa admits that the evolution of 2018 is not completely defined and may not be ready in time, so use the ancient engine is an option. Something reminiscent of what happened last winter. “we Modify the concept of the engine in the last year (2016 to 2017), there is no doubt that it was a necessary evolution, we think that it was right. The biggest problem is that we were not able to complete the engine in time for the preseason”.
Toro Rosso will have to rely on that Honda find finally the way of success.
Honda decided to adopt a concept of an engine more similar to that of their rivals, so that Hasegawa is convinced that this has the potential to face up to its rivals in the Formula 1. “we Chose almost the same concept than our rivals, so there is no reason that we can’t touch them. We started several collaborations with external personnel to identify issues and we have been able to see the results, so we will continue with them. There is No reason to stop, even we have to increase it”.
I Understand that most of the people think that Honda has attempted to do this by itself, but it is not correct
in order To improve, McLaren insisted to Honda, ask for outside help, something that finally made and that, having regard to the results, they think boost in 2018. “I Understand that most of the people think that Honda has attempted to do this by itself, but it is not correct. Of course, there are some limitations and obstacles, such as the language barrier, the geographical and the differences in the engine, so that is not a simple job. We need to maximize our internal performance, (but) we do not object to an external collaboration”.
The first contact with the runway will occur in the pre-season test on the 26 of February in the Catalan circuit of Montmelo, in which all the teams will roll a total of eight days to prepare for their new machines for the start of the season in Australia on march 23.
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