Honda still struggles with the internal combustion engine

The encouraging performances of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button before the Japanese Grand Prix were somewhat tarnished by the difficult race of the MP4-31s at Suzuka, on a track which did not favor the single-seaters of Woking.

Disappointing performances at home which cannot however overshadow the progress made by the engine manufacturer Honda since its return in 2015, but which still remain insufficient according to Yusuke Hasegawa, project manager F1 from Honda.

« We have made decent progress, but we are still far from our goal, the Nippon admitted to us. Our pace of development is honest, but it is not enough. »

Hasegawa clearly recognizes that the Honda Power Unit still needs to be improved and makes a very precise inventory of the areas where progress still needs to be made. “I believe we have returned to the level of our competitors when it comes to energy recovery.

I would even go so far as to say that in certain areas of this complex system, we are even better than others. On the engine side, however, we are clearly behind... It's the internal combustion engine that still causes us the most problems. This is where we have made the least progress, unfortunately. »

Find our full interview with Yusuke Hasegawa, as well as the report and analysis of the Japanese Grand Prix, carried out by our special correspondents in Suzuka, in issue 2084 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.