There are benefits to bringing something to market second or third, you get to look at what all your competitors are up to then build something better. I am sure that this is firmly in the minds of Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault, the three providers of power units in Formula One at the moment, as Honda is busy building its own powerplant for the 2015 season.
It is little secret that the Japanese firm is re-entering the sport in which it has fared so well in the past, most notably with the McLaren team and the illustrious Ayrton Senna at the wheel (in fact the Brazilian won all three of his titles powered by Honda), so it was a natural fit for the company to chose McLaren for its return to the sport.
Honda has just released this image of its upcoming engine and will show a film including the sound of the engine revving at the Suzuka Circuit (October 2 – 5, 2014 and will be shared with the public from October 6, 2014).
Comments by Yasuhisa Arai, Senior Managing Officer of Honda R&D Co., Ltd., who is heading the F1 Project:
“Working toward Honda’s F1 participation starting in the 2015 season, development of the power unit is entering its prime phase at our research and development facility in Sakura (Tochigi, Japan), where we transferred our automobile motor sports development earlier this year. In addition to conducting simulations, we have moved onto the next stage where we conduct full-fledged bench tests of the engine while connecting the turbocharger and energy recovery systems. In the meantime, our racing operation base in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, has become fully operational. At this time, we are unveiling an image of our power unit that is under development. The whole team is concentrating on this development, getting ready for the forthcoming start of F1 participation in 6 months.”
