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McLaren-Honda’s double-points finish in Hungary suggests they’ve finally exorcised the cooling demons that have plagued their ersH from running at full steam.
Heat rejection problems were suffocating the Honda power unit for the majority of the first half of the season, which meant both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were running down on power and using excessive fuel consumption – when they weren’t breaking down, of course.
Formula One power units have special cooling requirements, all of which need to factor in engine oil, engine water, ERS water, hydraulics and gearbox, plus ERS oil for the batteries. Sometimes these batteries are aligned in different rows, yet have to be cooled by the same air, so it’s all a bit like trying to keep cool inside a pizza oven.
Add to this the need to produce the most aero-efficient package and temperature control becomes even more problematic. In an effort to push more air in you can often create a bigger surface area and in turn create more drag – not what you want in a Formula One car.
With cooling now under control at McLaren, Honda Motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai has made bullish statements about the team’s prospects at Spa, even going as far to say the Honda package could be on par with that of Ferrari’s this weekend at Belgium.
With McLaren-Honda effectively only having one decent result to their name in 2015, Arai-san’s comments look ill-founded, until you remember that the Japanese culture is not to shoot first and ask questions later.
The ‘Phase 3′ Honda power unit will feature a complete re-design of the combustion chamber and exhaust systems, plus the ability to run their ERS at full capacity.
At Hungary, Arai-san claimed Honda had already surpassed Renault in the power stakes, but were unable to know their pace in qualifying due to technical glitches on both cars. Comparatively speaking, his comments do hold some weight, but we’ll never know until the McLarens run in clean air.
The long straights at Spa should give a clearer picture of whether Yasuhisa’s claims are correct. Ron Dennis’ opening-round assertion that the McLaren was a “very good” chassis has come under scrutiny from Yasuhisa, who believes mechanical grip and aero performance are currently lacking.
Spa’s Kemmel Straight should quickly sort out if the new Honda unit is a Ferrari matcher if it doesn’t run out of puff before Le Combes. Inversely, if Arai-San’s misgivings over the aero-chassis configuration are correct, that will become more than evident on the run through Pouhon, Campus and Stavelot.
Either way, it’s brilliant to hear Honda injecting some fight into their words just a month out from their home race at Suzuka.
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