Breaking news
Formula 1
Honda committed to finding engine breakthrough, insists Dennis
McLaren is optimistic that it has made a breakthrough in convincing Honda to make changes it needs to ramp up its performance in Formula 1.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Oct 5, 2015, 8:43 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Although Honda's lack of straight-line speed was again highlighted at the Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren chief Ron Dennis says that there is a fresh sense of longer term optimism about their partnership.
It comes after a series of meetings he held with Honda senior staff in Tokyo, plus other talks that took place between McLaren and Honda staff at Suzuka.
"I was in Tokyo for several days beforehand," explained Dennis.
"I think the period I spent was extremely constructive and, over the course of this weekend, there have been discussions which are extremely constructive.
"The way that you build relationships and achieve things together is by coming together and not going apart, and being transparent, and working together to solve the issues.
"I cannot see anything positive coming out of public criticisms."
When asked if he was confident that Honda now understood what it needed to do, Dennis said: "I don't believe there is any doubt. Every level of Honda knows the challenge of F1, and knows exactly where we are."
Finding the limit
Honda is planning to make architectural changes to its power unit for next season, after realising that some of its design concepts are not ideal.
Dennis is well aware that progress on the power unit will not come quickly, but is eager to point out that recent reliability issues have been down to the team pushing so much for performance.
"The misconception that many people have is that every time you change the engine you give up a token," he said. "That is not the way it is.
"You develop the engines as much as you want. There is total freedom away from the circuit and with the number of engines used. It is only when you have significant improvement do you introduce an engine with a change of tokens.
"Theoretically, in an ideal world, that should be every fourth races, but we've tried to move forward faster and that has affected reliability and made the whole thing challenging.
"In the end, this very acute pain that we have inflicted to a certain degree on ourselves is the fastest way to get back to where we need to get to."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Commentary: Why McLaren should have picked Vandoorne for 2016
Next article Mercedes wary of tyre issues in Russia
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
McLaren
Lando Norris laments "very bad job" in qualifying for F1 United States GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
Lando Norris laments "very bad job" in qualifying for F1 United States GP
"We're just a step behind" - what McLaren is trying to solve with its final 2026 upgrades
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
"We're just a step behind" - what McLaren is trying to solve with its final 2026 upgrades
Latest news
Kimi Antonelli delivers Austin surprise pole in tricky Mercedes: "Finally we're seeing the results"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
Kimi Antonelli delivers Austin surprise pole in tricky Mercedes: "Finally we're seeing the results"
Why Ferrari failed to deliver on its hype in F1's United States GP qualifying
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
Why Ferrari failed to deliver on its hype in F1's United States GP qualifying
Jorge Martin planning MotoGP return at Malaysian GP
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
1 h
Jorge Martin planning MotoGP return at Malaysian GP
Lando Norris laments "very bad job" in qualifying for F1 United States GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
Lando Norris laments "very bad job" in qualifying for F1 United States GP
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe