Since Honda's return to F1 the topic has lived initially in the context of McLaren and then last year STR. This year they supply both STR and RBR. Even with McLaren being a year removed from Honda the topic still gets discussed there. I think mostly as there is just no single place to talk about "Honda"
So I wanted to start a thread specific to Honda in F1.
Regardless of your thoughts as to how and why their return has been rocky, it's hard to not feel they are making real progress. They are now supplying two teams. With RBR being one of the three that seems to have any real hope of winning races (outside of fluke occurrences by the midfield). They have been low drama during 2019 testing and was on the podium for the first time since 2008 and the first since their re-entry into the sport in 2015.
Honda remains the odd man out. A power unit supplier without a factory team. If Mercedes, Renault or Ferrari have a bad result, they handle that as a team. While internal finger pointing sometimes happens with them (particularly Ferrari), it is much more rare. While the RBR and Honda partnership is rosy at the moment, RBR is a known tough to please customer.
At the moment RBR and Honda are trying to temper expectations given the gap to Mercedes. They seem to be getting along swimmingly (so far). I am always very doubtful of anything Helmut Marko says, but this quote is interesting...
Quote:
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And Red Bull chief Dr Helmut Marko says there is more to come. For that, he admitted that Red Bull has work to do. "The best part of the package is the Honda engine," he said. "For our part we need to improve the chassis. "We have too little downforce, but that's born of the philosophy of the last five years where we had to constantly compensate for the lack of performance."
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https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/3...ull-car-marko/
Now, the cynical (and probably correct) interpretation is that this is a chance for Marko to snipe at Renault. But either way, I find it interesting that while they are very positive about the performance of Honda they point the finger at themselves as to the current pace of the 2019 RBR with respect to Mercedes. How often do we see this from RBR in general and Marko in particular?
I will also say that as much as we on this forum like to attribute the domination by Mercedes to their power unit (and it is likely still the best), it's clear that the overall package matters. Clearly we have multiple teams now running all four power units and there is clear performance differences between them on track. My point here is that are we starting to see a glimmer of parity from power units? With Honda just starting to get into the mix?
Richard