No Other Teams Want A Honda F1 Engine Because It's Still Terrible

Honda has struggled with its Formula 1 engine since its arrival last season, but despite big progress being made, no one else wants to join McLaren as a customer to the Japanese firm

Jack Leslie

07 Jul 2016

No Other Teams Want A Honda F1 Engine Because It's Still Terrible

Honda hasn’t had an easy time since returning to Formula 1 as an engine supplier at the start of the 2015 season, one year behind the rest of the pack. But, with the halfway mark of the F1 2016 season approaching, considerable progress has been made. It is still down on power and reliability issues continue to creep in, but it’s much, much better.

Right now, what would really help is if another team started using the V6 Turbo engine. Honda’s motorsport boss Yusuke Hasegawa has admitted supplying a second team with its F1 engine would be a big benefit and help to speed up development.

But the problem is, no one else wants it. No one is keen to join McLaren as a Honda-powered team – an awkward situation to be in and a sign more must be done.

The other three F1 power unit manufacturers all supply at least two teams. Mercedes and Ferrari power four in total (including their own teams), with Renault on two (although Red Bull’s engine is branded TAG-Heuer).

Hasegawa is quoted by Autosport saying:

“I think from a technical point of view it is good to have a second team, to have more chances to run the engines. Of course it costs a bit more, and we need to prepare the engineers, but in general I would be happy to have a second team if we have the opportunity. But also at this moment we are not strong enough. There is not any team that wants to have a Honda engine. We need to wait. I have to change the situation.”

Honda and McLaren have struggled since rekindling their partnership at the start of last season but progress has been steady and both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have scored several top 10 results each so far in 2016.

If this rate of development and improvement continues, maybe things will change and we will see more cars with Honda power in F1 soon.

Comments

V-TEC won’t kick in this season

Did VTEC not kick in?

VTEC broke

Very
Tall
Engine
Coolant?

I mean… i wouldnt mind having one

Yet Chris Harris still said it was legendary

When ?

You are (Like everybody else who responded to you, it seems), missing out on a very important piece of motorsport history, I am afraid. I suggest googling Ayrton Senna.

This engine…its supposed to have The Power Of Dreams. Surprised nobody wants to use it.

To be honest, when I was at Silverstone GP last year I noticed that although Honda engine is technically behind, it definitely had the best sound

Quick solution - pay Williams or Force India a few million to use your engines for a season or two. Those teams need the money and they aren’t going to win races with W and FI having fairly decent chassis and aero that could make up for the power loss - just guarantee them parity with McLaren and a few Japanese sponsors on the car. Both teams have blonde drivers which is popular in eastern asia and both team owners have many fingers in many pies but a free shot at Japanese consumers wouldn’t go amiss….That should make up for the lost revenue of points and eventual sponsorship loss?