McLaren Honda MP4-30

That picture, with the rear winds in the background, has just given me the idea of making boutique benches out of old F1 wings.

What's the application address for Dragons Den?

 

McLaren-Honda need to be careful if Manor tie up this Mercedes PU deal. In Monza Manor finished the race 80s behind the McLarens, and it's not ludicrous to suggest that a 2015 PU would be 1.5-2.0s faster than their 2014 Ferrari unit. That would put them right in McLaren territory.

 

Mclaren have a new sponsor, champagne brand moet. How ironic as they won't be drinking anytime soon

 

As mentioned......

 

They get to pass Go.

 

Great news for McLaren Honda. It won't get a huge amount of press but to get their big change done for free and saving the tokens for fine tuning is a massive win for them.

I would imagine it may also help Renault, depending on their config?

 

you would've thought they'd jump at the chance to do some pre-pre-season testing on a new engine layout, rather than wait to see where they've gone wrong this time next season in Barcelona.

 

I'm just as baffled, I can only assume that they feel that their fundamental design is right/works.

 

It does sound a bit confusing but as we know Honda are not always clear in what they mean. Remember Honda coming out with our engine is more powerful than Renault....... When what may have been a better statement 'our internal combustion engine is more powerful than Renaults but our energy recovery system is the equivalent to a pp3 battery'.
My guess is that Honda actually mean they are intending to keep the turbo in the same configuration (i.e. MGU-H in the V).
I believe they need a bigger turbine so it has the torque to allow the MGU-H to recover enough energy to boost Power Unit output and when possible produce excess power that can be stored for later use. I think you are actually allowed to harvest and use unlimited energy from the MGU-H. Where as the MGU-K is limited to recovering 2MJ of energy per lap and a max output of 4MJ per lap.

 

They should be going all out to improve their turbo using this, this opportunity won't be available to them again. Even if they believe this area of their car isn't inherently flawed there's always room for improvement, they should be sinking a tonne of cash into this development alone to try and sneak a bit of performance while the window's still open.

 

When Fernando Alonso was asked what he thought to Manor’s Mercedes engine deal, he said ‘they could put an airplane engine in and they will be no further ahead.’

In response to Alonso’s jibe, Manor wrote the most brilliant comeback on their Twitter account, effectively saying McLaren were going to finish last-but-one in the Constructors’ Championship this year!

I do have a feeling that Alonso may regret his comments about Manor!

 

Nicely batted back Manor.

If that were cricket, it'd be sent straight back over the bowlers head for six.

 

Right, winter approaching, McLaren still being eaten up on the straights.

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/exclusive-honda-misery-set-to-continue-into-2016/ has a good explanation on their issue, around the too small compressor based on their innovative split turbo.

Clearly, this suggests fundamental issue on this years engine that they are unable to change due to development rules, hence why they havent been able to do anything about it this year.


What else do we know are the actual technical problems, and what are the options for solutions? They are able to change the layout next year but Scarbs ran a story saying they will stick to their guns- what should they do?

 

To me it seems like Honda turned up and forgot they were making a PU, not an engine. Some of their ideas seem to be entirely detrimental to the ERS side of the PU, whilst it may help the internal combustion side they're being left for dead with the "free" power the ERS can bring. The rules even allow for much more open ERS development, I don't understand how a company the size of Honda seem so out of their depth with it all.

In 2014 Ferrari were openly found to have too small a turbo to power their MGU-H and as such ran out of ERS at the end of straights. In 2015 they brought a larger Turbo and can now at least trouble Mercedes. This raises the question, why did Honda go and make an even smaller turbo, the mind boggles.

 

I seem to remember Honda decided to use an axial turbo not a normal radial turbo. These are supposed to be more efficient as the gasses don't have to turn through 90 degrees to exit or enter the turbo. I believe due to this they don't require as much cooling on either the inlet or exhaust side of things. I think the problem is that traditionally axial turbos are more commonly used in aircrafts i.e. what is normally called a 'jet' is sort of a axial turbo with the internal combustion taking place radially between compressors and turbines. So for Honda to scale this back to fit in a F1 car is a huge feat. OK so there are smaller axial turbos but you get the idea. The other think is axial turbos efficiency is a relatively small band, which by using MGU-H could be workable. I think Honda went for something more unconventional that in it's first version doesn't perform as they wanted. It will be interested to see what they do for 2016.
The above is very much my basic understanding and simplification of things, I am more than happy to be corrected.

 

I was trying to find the post but I'm pretty sure Hondas issue is that the smaller fans which reduce lag affect the energy they can recover. In a way, their efficiency is affecting the amount of wasted energy they can recover, and then redeploy.

 

Arai said they're keeping the basic layout but increasing the size of the turbines to roughly the same as the Mercedes.