1 Racing Mind's 2017 Formula 1 Summer Break Report Card: McLaren Honda

Photo Credit: Zak Mauger/LAT Images

Team Grade: F

Driver Grades
Fernando Alonso: C (possible B- weighing Indy 500 effort on mark)
Stoffel Vandoorne: C-

The second oldest active Formula 1 team, McLaren has captured 182 grand prix victories and 8 constructor titles. Historic successes of the McLaren team are completely detached from the 2017 incarnation of the race team. Collecting only 11 points, McLaren Honda is enduring a year where their hybrid power unit’s development appeared to have taken a step backwards from 2016 and a obviously disgruntled veteran driver.

Team drivers Fernando Alonso and Steffel Vandoorne have both registered a non-start due to a mechanical problem. Alonso, a two-time Formula 1 World Champion, has vocally spoke out on the team’s poor performance this season. The widely-publicized choice to run the 2017 Indianapolis 500 instead of the Monaco Grand Prix with McLaren also spoke volumes on the Spaniard’s discontent after three seasons with the once top team. A native of Belgium, Vandoorne is contesting his first full Formula 1 season after debuting last season as a substitute for an injured Fernando Alonso for the Bahrain Grand Prix. At the beginning of the season, Stoffel Vandoorne’s performance on a race weekend sadly almost goes unmentioned lacking either speed or reliability. His efforts have shown improvements in recent races leading up to the summer break with a point-scoring finish of 10th coming at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Heading into the Belgian Grand Prix,

In late 2015, Red Bull Racing who was dissatisfied with their Renault power units was rumoured to have been in discussions with Honda but was apparently blocked into signing an agreement by McLaren. Instead of providing Honda with double the race cars to collect data, McLaren appears to have immersed themselves in development quicksand.

Thoughts of Team for Remainder of 2017:

If McLaren Honda finds some reliability in the final 9 races, the team can mainly focus on scoring points on the lower part of the top 10 grand prix results. A frustrating 2017 season has led to wild speculation relating to the McLaren operations for 2018. McLaren’s return to Mercedes-Benz power has been suggested since June. There’s also much uncertainty surrounding Fernando Alonso’s plans for next season whether his future will involve the team in Formula 1 or could possibly seek a longer visit to IndyCar. Vandoorne can take solace in the knowledge that McLaren Honda has confirmed his return for the 2018 season.

Hamilton's Pole Leads Magnificent Mercedes-Benz Showing in Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying

Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG

With almost a month passing between late July's Hungarian Grand Prix and this weekend's event on the famed Spa-Francorchamps course, a summer break must have certainly given drivers as well as whole teams time to consider their progress in the 2015 Formula 1 season. After 10 races down, the Belgian Grand Prix provides the ideal opportunity to advance on success found in the season so far or to establish a better course through the nine remaining events on the tour.

Back in the saddle again, 20 drivers belted into their highly-tuned, hybrid-powered race machines were unleashed for Belgian Grand Prix qualifying on the quick, challenging 7.004-kilometer track. Transitioning from a slower, tight circuit they last competed on in July, pilots of Formula 1 drivers once again familiarized themselves with blazing fast speeds. For drivers seated inside vehicles propelled by Mercedes-Benz, the time trial was an exceptional return to 2015 competition.

As if nothing his changed over the static period of August, the Mercedes AMG added to their undefeated streak in qualifying for 2015. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg decided not to play any games by sweeping 1-2 in all sessions of the Saturday time trials at Spa-Francorchamps. Trading the top spot in Q1 and Q2, the Mercedes AMG teammates fought in a contentious Q3 session. With a 1-minute, 47.197-second lap time, the pole went to Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton`s top time was 0.458 seconds faster than teammate Nico Rosberg`s best run and more than 1.3 seconds quicker than third place in qualifying. The front row start for Mercedes AMG in Belgium is also the team`s 22nd consecutive pole. The current Formula 1 record of pole positions claimed by the vehicles of a single constructor is Williams with 24 scored from 1992 through to 1993.

A season-best effort, Williams Martini Racing driver Valtteri Bottas will be starting in third place. The result for Bottas equals the team's best qualifying spot of the year obtained by Felipe Massa in Australia. Massa starts in sixth place on Sunday. Once again, the efforts of Mercedes-Benz power units proved to be the go-to method for going fast in the 2015 Formula 1 season. The top-five vehicles in Belgian Grand Prix qualifying are powered by gasoline/electric propulsion from the German automaker. Unfortunately, a gearbox charge for the Lotus-Mercedes race car of Romain Grosjean will demote the entry to the ninth-place spot on Sunday's starting grid. Taking the fourth place position Grosjean occupied, Force India and driver Sergio Perez have backed-up on a stunning performance in practice at Spa-Francorchamps. The Mercedes-powered Force India's best finish this season is a sixth-place effort accomplished by Nico Hulkenberg. 

First to break the Mercedes-Benz brigade in qualifying for the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo and his Red Bull-Renault's lap time was narrowly placed between Perez and Massa. With Ricciardo's Red Bull Racing car starting 5th on the grid Sunday, the second team car driven by Daniil Kvyat will start the race in the 12th place spot.

Starting on the fourth row of the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix grid beside the Lotus-Mercedes of Pastor Maldonado is the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. The most recent Formula 1 race winner, Vettel's car will be the only Ferrari-powered vehicle within the top-10 for the main event. Ferrari factory teammate Kimi Raikkonen is starting in 14th spot after not making a lap in Q2. The reason for Raikkonen's inaction after Q1 was an oil pressure issue.

This weekend, the McLaren Honda team has been utilizing revised power unit for the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite the cars driven by Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso being assessed a collective 105-grid position penalty for changes made by the team, the result is only a back of the grid starting spot for both McLaren-Honda vehicles. Thanks to a recently amended rule in Formula 1, there will be no further penalties in future races for this weekend's changes. On-track, it appears the Honda power unit with the McLaren chassis is still struggling to find speed to outrun all-but the Manor Maruassia cars in Belgium.

Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix is scheduled for 44 laps for a 2:00pm local time start (8:00am Eastern time).

 

2015 Formula 1

Belgian Grand Prix

Starting Grid

Pos #	Car #	Driver	Team	Engine
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams F1	Renault
4	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	Renault
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes-Benz
7	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	Mercedes-Benz
8	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari
9	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	Mercedes-Benz
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jr	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Renault
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	Renault
13	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari
14	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari
15	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari
16	28	Will Stevens	Manor Marussia	Ferrari
17	98	Roberto Merhi	Manor Marussia	Ferrari
18	33	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Renault
19	22	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda
20	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda

1 Racing Mind 2015 Formula 1 Mid-season Report Card: McLaren Honda

Photo Credit: FOTO STUDIO COLOMBO PER PIRELLI MEDIA

McLaren Honda: D

 

Fernando Alonso: C+

Jenson Button: C

McLaren is a used to being a front-runner in Formula 1 competition. Winning eight constructors titles, the race team rekindled a relationship with an organization that together enjoyed a dynasty similar to what Mercedes AMG is currently forging. From 1988 to 1993, McLaren and Japanese automaker Honda claimed four constructors' titles as a partnership. In 2013, Honda's return to the sport with a new hybrid power unit came with the anticipation for the 2015 season.

When Honda chose to sit out 2014 season to work on their power unit, it seemed acceptable to believe they would have ironed out all the bugs as they readied for 2015. Unfortunately for the new McLaren Honda team, missteps they would have wanted to see in a lab is appearing on the race track.

The new Honda powerplant was been shown low on power and durability right from the start of the season. For the 2015 Australian Grand Prix season opener, the McLaren-Honda #20 of Kevin Magnussen suffered a power unit failure when before taking to the grid. On 11 occasions in the first 10 races of 2015 including two times competitors were not even able to start a race, the McLaren Honda team cars failed to make it to the finish line.

Though retirements reflect poorly for the McLaren Honda team in the first half of the 2015 season, there is some optimism. Despite the understandably pessimistic attitude surround the McLaren Honda team, the organization has scored points so-far this season (an almost bewildering outcome from some rather nightmarish circumstances). Two McLaren Honda drivers scored points in two races.

The performance-plagued McLaren race car has made it difficult to evaluate the two former world champions in the team's drivers' line-up. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso are involved with the less-familiar position of running deeper in the Formula 1 grid. Fernando Alonso's season started in the worst possible manner with a crash in pre-season testing. Missing the Australian Grand Prix, Alonso returned to the track in Malaysia in a race that lasted just 20 laps for the Spaniard ending with a power unit failure. While finishing races has plagued Fernando Alonso so far in 2015, the two races prior to the summer break resulted in a tenth at Silverstone and a fifth in Hungary.

Jenson Button joined the team in 2010 as a teammate with Alonso. Bringing the Honda powerplant to the finish for its first event, Button also scored the first championship points for the new McLaren-Honda combination. Signs seem to indicate this could be his last season. Nothing is confirmed for 2016 by the team or driver and news is mostly pure speculation. 

 

Ingredients for Second-Half of 2015:

When Bruce McLaren first competed with a chassis of his own constructor name in 1966, it wasn't until the McLaren's third season when the team claimed its first victory. The first win in 1968 occurred interestingly enough in the Belgian Grand Prix. In 2015, McLaren is thinking smaller heading into the Spa-Francorchamps track. Honda touts a revised power unit for the McLaren race car starting in Belgium said to have "updated the combustion characteristics" according the Honda R&D's Chief Officer of Motorsports Yasuhisa Arai. What this means for the upcoming grand prix and the remainder of the 2015 season is a mystery.

Recovered Fernando Alonso Rejoins McLaren Team for Malaysia

Photo Credit: Pirelli Photo Service

Good news has come for the McLaren Honda team and major motor racing fans in time for the second race of the 2015 Formula 1 tour. Having missed the first race of the season, Spain's Fernando Alonso has been given a clean bill of health for the trip to the Sepang International Circuit for March 29th's Malaysian Grand Prix. Alonso will belt himself into the #14 Honda-powered McLaren MP4-30 race car amid several early season concerns.

At the end of the 2014 Formula 1 season, it was fair to say that the McLaren team was looking forward to what 2015 will bring thanks to two major components. Power their 2015 effort would result from a partnership with a resurrected Honda presence in the grand prix tour. Taking an additional year to iron-out their new gasoline/hybrid racing powertrain, Honda was placing complete attention on the single team for new year rebranded as McLaren Honda. The second element was a driver line-up for which 2009 Drivers' champion Jenson Button would be joined by two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso. A Ferrari driver from 2010 to 2014, Spain's Alonso has been actively hunting for a third championship title and the move to McLaren Honda was seen as a bridge to that goal.

In open testing prior to the beginning of the new Formula 1 season, the latter ingredient to McLaren Honda's idyllic 2015 was placed in jeopardy. During the second day of testing in Barcelona on February 22nd, Fernando Alonso's McLaren collided hard with the wall in turn 3. An area where vehicle speeds were estimated at around 150 miles per hour, the driver suffered a serious concussion and resulted in the loss of consciousness. It was also confirmed that Alonso suffered temporary retrograde amnesia when the Spaniard regained consciousness leaving him unable to recall events past 1995. This 20-year memory gap appears to have been quickly recollected. Alonso has since remembered a testing crash leading to him being sidelined remembering sensing "heavy" steering before the hit.

While the biggest concern regarding the crash was Alonso's health, the McLaren Honda team also appeared to have had their pre-season preparations thrown off kilter. Judging solely from the first race of the 2015 season, the year spent preparing the Honda powerplant for competition may not have amounted to the advantage McLaren was planning to obtain. For the opening race in Australia, test driver Kevin Magnussen returned to competition as a replacement to Alonso but was unable to start the event when smoke erupted from his MP4-30 vehicle. The remaining vehicle driven by Jenson Button was better than Magnussen's but still came up short. Though Button's car finished the race (two laps down to the winning Mercedes AMG of Lewis Hamilton), its 11th place finish made it the only car to complete the Australian Grand Prix without scoring championship points.

McLaren is clearly anticipating the arrival of Fernando Alonso will represent a second chance to start the 2015 Formula 1 in their intended form.

Honda's 2015 Formula 1 Engine Comes to Life on YouTube

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy

On Friday, Honda's United Kingdom outlet provided race fans with their first sense of an upcoming Formula 1 powerplant; That sense consisted of sound.

Through a YouTube release, an audio track for the turbocharged, 1.6 liter V-6 racing engine has been made public. An audio-only presentation, the 2015 Honda Formula 1 engine was led across the power band as a sampling for what will be heard on the race track.

The Honda turbocharged V-6 engine is being developed jointly with the McLaren F1 team. While new Formula 1 rules come into place for last year, McLaren's ongoing contract with Mercedes-Benz is delaying Honda's entry until the 2015 season. For the Japanese company re-entering the top-ranked open wheel racing series, the extra time will prove pivotal in developing the full-functional race powerplant.

Until 2015, here is a small dose of what Formula 1 fans can expect from the upcoming McLaren Honda combination:

Honda Rekindling McLaren Partnership for 2015 Formula 1 Season Return

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy

A sport known for forward thinking, deep preparations are underway for the 2014 Formula 1 season even as the 2013 tour has started. The 2014 Formula 1 tour will premiere with the first significant set of rule changes to the cars and engines for more than five years. As many established players in the sport are adapting to the new regulations, the opportunity exists for other parties to commit to the series. For the case of Honda, the 2014 regulations is just right for another fight for the top of the grand prix podium.

Announcing Thursday of a renewed commitment to Formula 1, Honda pledges production of a turbocharged, direct-injected 1.6 liter engine complying with upcoming series rules. In addition to confirming their involvement in Formula 1 competition, the Japanese auto company was able to declare a partnership with veteran operation McLaren. The McLaren Honda team formation will become a regular sight on the Formula 1 racing grid starting in the 2015 season. President and CEO of Honda Motor Company Limited Takanobu Ito enthusiastically touts the engine news. Ito says, "Ever since its establishment, Honda has been a company which grows by taking on challenges in racing. Honda has a long history of advancing our technologies and nurturing our people by participating in the world's most prestigious automobile racing series. The new F1 regulations with their significant environmental focus will inspire even greater development of our own advanced technologies and this is central to our participation in F1."

Honda's 2015 Formula 1 return marks the fourth stint that the Japanese auto company will participate in the open wheel series. First operating as a constructor in 1964, Honda's initial efforts eventually resulted in grand prix victories at the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix and the 1967 Italian Grand Prix. Withdrawing from the sport after the 1968 season, Honda not return to Formula 1 competition again until 1983. Rejoining the series as an engine supplier, an partnership with Williams F1 team garnered Honda the recognition for powering a champion-winning race car in 1987 driven by Nelson Piquet. By the end of the 1980s, the hotly dominant Honda engine was powering Team Lotus and famously McLaren. Honda left Formula 1 for a second time after the 1992 season. Though Honda's next official return to the series would not occur under 2000, Mugen Motorsports (a company founded by the son of Soichiro Honda) did offer a relative presence for Honda. From 1991 to 1999, Mugen supplied a V-10 engine it several teams. The unofficial Honda involvement propelled Ligier and Jordan Grand Prix to victory. When Honda returned to Formula 1 in an official capacity in 2000 with the British American Racing (BAR) team, the 'H' brand would ride as a constructor once again. Acquiring ownership in BAR in 2004, Honda's commitment would be low in yielding previous success. Jenson Button's 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix victory was the sole occasion Honda would won before their withdraw after the 2008 season.

The history between Honda and McLaren in the world's premiere motorsport series has been storied. From 1988 to 1992, drivers Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Gerhard Berger were instrumental in creating memorable appearance for the McLaren-Honda race cars. During their period together, Honda and McLaren took four-straight Formula 1 constructor championships. McLaren will run Mercedes-Benz powerplant for the 2014 season as the turbocharged Honda engine will be undergoing development for a 2015 entrance. The 2015 Formula 1 season debut is due to McLaren's current agreement with Mercedes-Benz which will end after 20 seasons together. “ We aim to cap our long-standing partnership with the same ambition and resolve with which we began it: namely, to keep winning.”, said McLaren Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh.