Honda is targeting nothing other than victory as it prepares to return to formula one in 2015.<\/p>\n
Every other engine supplier in F1 – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault – subsidises the huge costs of producing a highly-sophisticated turbo V6 ‘power unit’ by also selling it to customers for millions of euros.<\/p>\n
Japanese manufacturer Honda, however, is focusing solely on its works deal with McLaren.<\/p>\n
“We are not thinking about that,” said Honda’s F1 chief Yasuhisa Arai when asked by Speed Week about potential plans for customers.<\/p>\n
“At the moment we want to concentrate only on our return (to F1) for the 2015 season.”<\/p>\n
Honda’s most recent F1 foray was not successful, with the last ‘earth dreams’-liveried works car in 2008 devoid of sponsorship and ninth of the eleven teams.<\/p>\n
“You cannot compare,” Arai insists.\u00a0 “We are approaching very differently in 2015, starting with the fact that we will no longer make the car ourselves.”<\/p>\n
When asked what the goal for 2015 is, he answered: “To win grands prix with McLaren.\u00a0 It is for this reason we decided to partner with McLaren.\u00a0 We want to make history.”<\/p>\n
Undoubtedly, Honda wants to revive its glory days as a works engine supplier, when it won numerous titles in the 80s and 90s, including the near-perfect 1988 season with McLaren.<\/p>\n
“We expect points in every race; we expect victories,” said Arai.<\/p>\n
He admitted the trigger for Honda’s decision to return was the new and cutting-edge ‘power unit’ rules, featuring a small turbo engine and energy recovery systems.<\/p>\n
“This is a huge challenge for the engineers and the way forward for the industry,” said Arai.<\/p>\n
“But this is not a one-way street — the formula one project will also benefit from our experience with hybrid technology in production models,” he explained.<\/p>\n
Arai dismissed speculation McLaren will test early versions of the 2015 engine in a modified car, revealing that the new Honda will only run for the first time at Jerez next year.<\/p>\n
And finally, he was asked about the mild tone of F1’s new regulations.<\/p>\n
“Engine noise is not an issue for an engineer,” Arai smiled.\u00a0 “But if the fans want more noise, then we should not ignore them.”<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Honda is targeting nothing other than victory as it prepares to return to formula one in 2015. Every other engine supplier in F1 – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault – subsidises the huge costs of producing a highly-sophisticated turbo V6 ‘power unit’ by also selling it to customers for millions of euros. Japanese manufacturer Honda, however, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[5262,5340,5284,4374,4551],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22706,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22705\/revisions\/22706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}