The performance from McLaren Honda this year is obviously disappointing for a top team but, to be honest, it was always going to be that way with an brand new engine with far less development than the other engine manufacturers. Despite what feels like an endless chain of retirements, we should hopefully see a much more competitive team towards the end of the season but i doubt they'll achieve podiums.
Before even the 2015 pre-season tests had begun, almost everyone was hyping up the new McLaren Honda partnership. This is mainly due to their extremely successful past during the era of Ayrton Senna clocking up a total of 8 championships between 1988 - 1992. This success story is what people instantly think of after someone says "McLaren Honda" so it was no surprise that there were high expectations from the very moment it was announced that they were partnering again.
Although they've had a very successful past, there's no reason as to why this should carry on from the word go in a completely different era of Formula One. We have to remind ourselves that there was no MGU-K or MGU-H back in 1988 (the last year that Honda produced a turbo powered engine) and other aspects of the engine which have changed drastically over the years. It wasn't much of a surprise to see the Honda engine performing poorly in pre-season testing; other manufacturers had been developing the new-spec engine for over 3 years at the least and a whole season of mileage compared to Honda. These facts are easy to miss but it's the main reason why the Honda engine is under-performing.
The chassis isn't too bad judging by Jenson Button's point finish in Monaco (may have been a points finish for Fernando Alonso too but a retirement ruined his chances) which is a chassis-demanding track. Despite this, though, there's always room for improvement on the chassis.
McLaren Honda's season so far has obviously been horrific with countless retirements and under-performing races but all they can do is develop the engine until it's competitive and reliable; at the moment, it is neither. Fernando hinted at this by telling media that McLaren might use this season as a "testing season" which seems the logical choice.
Honda seems to want to improve dramatically in performance and reliability of their engine which is unusual because doing one of those things usually leads to the other one becoming worse. In my view, Honda should concentrate on reliability first, then on performance once they've produced reliable power unit but at the end of the day, they know what they're doing.
You get the vibe that McLaren are relying on 2016 to show their true pace with a competitive power unit which is completely understandable. Honda have the biggest job of all the manufacturers during this season and over the winter to meet everyone's expectations of being a championship-contesting team.
Before even the 2015 pre-season tests had begun, almost everyone was hyping up the new McLaren Honda partnership. This is mainly due to their extremely successful past during the era of Ayrton Senna clocking up a total of 8 championships between 1988 - 1992. This success story is what people instantly think of after someone says "McLaren Honda" so it was no surprise that there were high expectations from the very moment it was announced that they were partnering again.
Although they've had a very successful past, there's no reason as to why this should carry on from the word go in a completely different era of Formula One. We have to remind ourselves that there was no MGU-K or MGU-H back in 1988 (the last year that Honda produced a turbo powered engine) and other aspects of the engine which have changed drastically over the years. It wasn't much of a surprise to see the Honda engine performing poorly in pre-season testing; other manufacturers had been developing the new-spec engine for over 3 years at the least and a whole season of mileage compared to Honda. These facts are easy to miss but it's the main reason why the Honda engine is under-performing.
The chassis isn't too bad judging by Jenson Button's point finish in Monaco (may have been a points finish for Fernando Alonso too but a retirement ruined his chances) which is a chassis-demanding track. Despite this, though, there's always room for improvement on the chassis.
McLaren Honda's season so far has obviously been horrific with countless retirements and under-performing races but all they can do is develop the engine until it's competitive and reliable; at the moment, it is neither. Fernando hinted at this by telling media that McLaren might use this season as a "testing season" which seems the logical choice.
Honda seems to want to improve dramatically in performance and reliability of their engine which is unusual because doing one of those things usually leads to the other one becoming worse. In my view, Honda should concentrate on reliability first, then on performance once they've produced reliable power unit but at the end of the day, they know what they're doing.
You get the vibe that McLaren are relying on 2016 to show their true pace with a competitive power unit which is completely understandable. Honda have the biggest job of all the manufacturers during this season and over the winter to meet everyone's expectations of being a championship-contesting team.