“To be honest the Honda was not slow. Maybe Jenson [Button] had an issue or something, because later I got stuck behind Fernando [Alonso] and I have to say Honda have made a very good step forward.”
This was Max Verstappen’s frank assessment of having to spend a large chunk of his Japanese Grand Prix staring at not one, but two McLaren gearboxes.
“They were not slower than us,” he added. “It was very difficult for me to get past with their general mid-range and top speed.”
Of course, once in clean air Verstappen was able to pull a gap on the McLarens, but the Dutchman was made to work for the position – not usually a requirement when dispensing of GP2 machinery. Nevertheless, Fernando Alonso made the comparison that sent Twitter into a frenzy; forcing a prompt clarification from the Spaniard.
“When we are fighting in group is difficult,” he wrote. “We all want to win, and sometimes transmit the team radios, but it should be private chats.”
Alonso’s online explanation for his radio outburst [likening his Honda power unit to that of a GP2 car] might have come across as PR back-peddling, but radio silence would have been more concerning. I’d rather fire in the belly than stoic acceptance from a driver knowing he was always getting another fat cheque in the mail.
While many in the media (hankering for a clickbait article) were quick to pounce on the gaffe, I doubt anyone stopped to consider that the outburst might have been borne out of frustration for his colleagues rather than directed at the team? But then such nuances get lost in the rush for a headline.
I had the rare opportunity to speak with Honda boss Yasuhisa Arai on the Sunday morning of the Japanese Grand Prix. Away from the poison darts of reporters trying to get a rise out of Arai san, the man who taught Asimo to walk upstairs was relaxed and straightforward with his responses.
“The Japanese culture is one where we don’t tend to say much,” explained Arai san. “You’re supposed to feel it or understand it with one another. This is the same with Honda.
“It’s a gut-feeling that you communicate without words. It’s a high-context culture. I feel the same way with Fernando. He’s the type of person that communicates like that. We will give him an idea and he might say: ‘No I can’t drive as fast like that.’”
The best engineer and driver combinations have always worked this way: Jim Clarke and Colin Chapman, Patrick Head and Alan Jones, Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher are all perfect exponents of this theory. Progress moves much quicker this way rather than having to explain your rationale.
Fernando seems to appreciate this approach. For a man who once reportedly kicked a chair at former Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci with the parting words, “figlio su una cagna”, he appears to be showing some uncharacteristic restraint.
“I’ve learnt a lot,” said Alonso. “There are some people and projects (at Honda) that are very, very clever. They are fantastic people. The performance of the power unit at the start of the year was not at a level to compete so we had to make progress more rapidly than normal and that includes taking more risks than normal. All of this has been done by very clever engineers. In extracting the maximum from this power unit (as opposed to next year) it has happened very quickly. It’s a completely different approach to what I’m used to.”
The common misconception labelled at Honda is that they have a regimented approach which is out of step with Formula One practices. It is true that their modus operandi is diametrically opposed to modern F1, but then that’s hardly a negative given the state the sport is in.
“We don’t have a very strict methodology. It may look that way but it’s not the reality,” said Arai san.
“In European companies, if you’re the engineer you don’t touch the car. If you’re a test engineer then you don’t get track activities. There’s a clear line about what you do and what you’re responsible for. At Honda, engineers will actually assemble or reassemble power units and actually test them as well. So they have a dual, triple role when they take on the job. The different part of Honda is that you think for yourself, you make it yourself and you test it yourself.
“We don’t have manuals that tell you what to change. Therefore the more experienced the engineers are, their gut feeling is usually right and can go straight to what their objective is.”
It’s an approach that some veteran engineers like ex-Sauber aerodynamicist Willem Toet believe is a dying art, given that most young race engineers entering Formula One are effectively consigned to piecing together kit cars.
“It’s unlikely for a young engineer to come up with the next great innovation if their every move is has been laid out six months in advance,” said Toet. “But ideas can come from anywhere. If you have a broad understanding of the challenges of racing a car, that understanding really helps you to believe when a driver says a car is too unstable.”
That process – much like it was through-out the 1970s, ’80s and even ’90s – enables engineers to come up with solutions a lot faster when problems surface. One only has to remember Adrian Newey’s 2007 RB3. It took the engineers close to a year to work out the intricacies of one man’s aero design, and it was in turn inconsistent in its speed delivery.
But is the Honda approach working at McLaren?
“Sometimes there is a difficulty in trying to get that [message] across,” said Arai san. “If you’re speaking with a European engineer, they have theories, but Honda engineers have tested it already, so know already whether it will work or not. McLaren is a very methodical and procedural company, but I think they now understand how Honda works. And we’ve learnt from the McLaren side that if you put in place procedures so that you don’t waste time.”
The ‘hands on’ work ethic is something that Bruce McLaren would be proud of, having performed many ‘on the fly’ modifications that became innovations that are still used to this day. Make no mistake, McLaren-Honda are behind the eight-ball and a further engine regulation change would unfairly render their project a failure. Arai san is however acutely aware of the need to make haste without sacrificing innovation or creating a Mercedes mimeograph.
“Realistically we need to close the gap,” admitted Arai san. “Come Melbourne [next year], we should be where [the top teams] are now. Obviously they will progress as well, so we’ll estimate where they’ll be and add this to the development of the 2016 engine. We’re on an escalator and the top teams are already at the top. So we have to find a way to run up the escalator, otherwise we’ll always be behind.”
If Honda can build a robot that runs up escalators, then extending that metaphor to Formula One is surely just a matter of time.
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