Tuesday, December 2, 2014

TopGear: Listen to the new McLaren-Honda

Your first taste of 2015’s most anticipated new Formula One car. But who’ll be driving it?


Honda is returning to the Formula One grid to power next year's McLaren MP4-29H/1X1. For anyone who remembers McLaren's late 80s/early 90s form, this is news to get excited about.

For those that don't, a smidge of context. McLaren switched to Honda power for the 1988 Formula One season, using a 1.5-litre turbocharged V6 engine powering the cars of Messrs Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

Were they successful, you might ask? Fuhgeddaboudit. It was almost embarrassing; McLaren won 15 of the 16 races that year, taking the constructors' and drivers' championships with it.

McLaren won both 1989 titles too, with Honda's new 3.5-litre V10. And then again in 1990. And then again in 1991. The partnership with Honda then, was bloody successful.

So, after a dismal few years, McLaren has reenlisted the help of its former Japanese partner for next year. The video above gives you a little taster of what it'll sound like - and we must stress it's a very little taster. And judging from the car's first tests, there's still some work to be done - electrical issues blighted the first test at Abu Dhabi, and it then completed just three laps in total, following a ‘fuel/data exchange issue'. This sounds like quite a big issue.

Nevertheless, McLaren reckons the test was useful, and has all its fingers and toes crossed that come Australia next year, it'll give the Mercs a run for their money.

But with the team still undecided on its driver line-up (though Fernando Alonso is hotly tipped to make up half of it), who'd you like to see behind the wheel of the new McLaren-Honda?

Source;
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/mclaren-honda-formula-one-car-2015-first-video-2014-12-01


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