McLaren Finally Losing Patience With Honda in Formula One?

[Jan Larsen]

Honda hasn't always been crap. Their road car engines used to be excellent. When other manufactures limited their performance engines (GTI etc) to around 6000 rpm, Honda limited theirs to 9000 rpm and it STILL did 300.000+km. The 90's McLaren-Honda era was equally great. Time and staff has changed at Honda, the complexity and challenge of modern F1 has taken them by complete surprise, but after 3 years of utter incompetence, its time to either fire the entire engine department or quit the thing.

 

[bsmooth]

I thought Honda used to be the engine to have in F1 a few years ago, maybe that was more than a few.Didn't I hear at Canada McLaren was at least 18 mph slower down the straights? If thats the number no wonder they can't keep up.
Someone mentioned Japanese Mfg not be able to keep up with the European Mfg. They did at Lemans, won it actually, and with a Rotary engine to boot. Now the rotary's gone and so is Honda it appears. I'd really like to see BMW make a run at it again, but lets have some proper noise please !

 

[Akra]

I thought Honda used to be the engine to have in F1 a few years ago, maybe that was more than a few.Didn't I hear at Canada McLaren was at least 18 mph slower down the straights? If thats the number no wonder they can't keep up.
Someone mentioned Japanese Mfg not be able to keep up with the European Mfg. They did at Lemans, won it actually, and with a Rotary engine to boot. Now the rotary's gone and so is Honda it appears. I'd really like to see BMW make a run at it again, but lets have some proper noise please !

That Japanese win was 26 years ago, and it's the one and only Japanese win (although that might change by this time next week).

 

[St3fan]

Honda hasn't always been crap. Their road car engines used to be excellent. When other manufactures limited their performance engines (GTI etc) to around 6000 rpm, Honda limited theirs to 9000 rpm and it STILL did 300.000+km. The 90's McLaren-Honda era was equally great. Time and staff has changed at Honda, the complexity and challenge of modern F1 has taken them by complete surprise, but after 3 years of utter incompetence, its time to either fire the entire engine department or quit the thing.

Me myself like you have been living in the impression for too long that Honda is brilliant and reliable both on road and on track. But now I realize that pretty much all the Honda road cars that I like and want were produced 15 or 20 years ago. Now when my friends tell me that they are buying a new Honda the first thing comes to my mind is not "he/she wants a nice reliable and fun car to drive" but "he/she has no imagination, no interest in cars, and can't be bothered with more choices". I feel the world is changing way too fast for me.

 

[Jan Larsen]

The early Civic Type R (01-05) was brilliant. Cheap(ish), great engine, good chassis, slightly dodgy interior. The next one had the same philosophy but was ugly as hell and the current one costs half a war.
If I were single, I'd go look for a '05 Type R immidiately, but alas I'm not. And the current Honda range does nothing for me.