Apex1.0

I am not a big f1 fan. As a matter of fact, I only took interest after watching the documentary Senna and finding out the Honda will be powering mclarens this year. So I have watched this whole season and wow, I don't mind rooting for an underdog but geez...

So is f1 a drivers series or a technology showcase, or both? Does Hamilton dominate because of raw talent, or he has the wining car? And most importantly, why can't Honda build a power unit that is competitive? What the hell is going on over at McLaren honda?

andrewhake

Nothing, F1 is really f@#king hard.

After Mercedes bought Brawn GP after they won the drivers and constructors championship in 2009 they were relatively unsucessful for 3 years. Mercedes won't be dominate forever and McLaren won't be struggling forever. But nothing will change over night.

alSpeed2k

Lol! Hamilton is good, but he also has an awesome car. He's definitely a much better driver than when he won his first championship. Mercedes did a great job developing their new turbo engine; before this, F1 was dominated by Red Bull.

As for McLaren, no idea, I'm suprised they are so unreliable right now. They should've just copied MBs design; instead they needed to be different.

Dead Serious

Gotta inovate to dominate. I have low expectations for mclaren till next year. Successful seasons dont always start off successful or finish strong but teams that struggle at first and dont see a podium by July never seem to get there.

Apex1.0

Yes, I did not expect to see them at the top. However I didn't expect to see them at the bottom either.

I hope they can turn it around... At this point a string of mid to back pack finishes for both cars would be a grand feat.

Vitt

^This. Honda decided on a new design for their PU and some say they may have underestimated the challenges. But the whole idea was to beat Mercedes, not just play best of the rest like Ferrari is doing right now. But instead of using the same successful layout as Mercedes, it's sort of like they thought, let's go "one up" on them with a new design.

Let's hope they got something right and by the end of the year they'll have the bugs worked out for 2016 (only for the whole thing to be changed again for 2017?? lol). Some ppl say that the McLaren chassis is also not up to par (Button described the car as scary to drive during one race this year in which it was eventually a DNF, I believe), but the argument is that to develop the chassis they need a reliable PU, otherwise they don't have the opportunity. There are better links out there explaining the Honda design, but this is all I could find right now:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...it-layout.html

UnkieTrunkie

That's a quality statement right there. . .

. . . if only McLaren/Honda were actually allowed to innovate.

ESPN: Pre-season engine token spend revealed (3/14/15)

9 tokens, no mid-season upgrades. . . I only hope that whatever is cooking for next year at Woking is even able to make use of the data they get this year.

There's some more detail here about the token system. It started making my head spin with the chart of what is/isn't legal. . .

kryptonite

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/33670456

" Honda has promised an upgraded engine for the next race, the Belgian Grand Prix on 23 August.

Sources say that if the revised unit produces the expected performance, it will be the first time all season that the engine produces more power than it did in the opening race in Australia back in March. "

Triple-H

What's wrong with McLaren is a separate question from what's wrong with Honda
- regardless of history, Honda is new at the game with these power units and their hands are being tied by Bernie rules
- McLaren is one of the big old teams that is currently down in the dumps, and Ron Dennis should have been fired long, long, long ago; because he clearly does not have the smarts to resign

Can I change your question slightly...
What the f is wrong with Bernie and the management of F1?
- well the obvious answer is, too many things to list........
- the important answer is a lack of, and a brutal restriction of testing and development
If you have come to the party with an inferior product, and are unable to fully test and develop your product, exactly how the hell are you supposed to improve it?
Yes, Honda is having a crappy year, but I find it hard to totally trash them when I know just how restricted F1 is with testing and development

kryptonite

I agree for the most part. The rules are in place to even the stakes amongst all teams. Lower budget teams don't have the capacity to spend millions upon millions every day to get things right. However, the rule clearly hasn't worked. the game is still dominated by one team and if anything it's now allowing their monopoly on wins by restricting development for other teams

End of the day, F1 is supposed to be about cutting edge auto tech and I guess the rules one could argue are hindering or promoting out of the box thinking.