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

McLaren and Honda getting back together?

By Greg Stuart on 11 March 2013 in F1

 

The dream team from 1988-1992 could be reunited in 2015…

Between 1988 and 1992, McLarens powered by Honda engines won four Drivers’ titles – three for Ayrton Senna and one for Alain Prost – and the same number of Constructors’ championships.

Now the latest rumour going around the F1 paddock is that Honda could be back in F1 by 2015 and looking to provide engines to the team again.

Speaking to Autopsort magazine recently, McLaren Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh was non-committal about whether Mercedes-Benz would continue to provide the team’s engines beyond the 2014 season.

"We have a contract that covers the next three seasons at the moment and we will certainly go into next year [2014] with Mercedes-Benz,” said Whitmarsh.

"There is nothing to announce at the moment,” he added. “I can't elaborate any further.”

Whitmarsh’s comments were analysed by Autosport’s F1 Editor Edd Straw, who was unconvinced that the McLaren/Mercedes-Benz partnership would exist beyond 2014.

“That he specifically confirmed next season, but dodged the issue of 2015 is telling,” said Straw.

“While the dotting of the i’s and the crossing of the t's might be incomplete, both McLaren and Honda plan to renew their partnership on track in 2015,” he added.

Should the rumour turn out to be true, it would bring to an end one of the most established manufacturer/engine supplier relationships in the modern Formula One era.

Following Honda’s withdrawal from the sport at the end of the 1992 season, McLaren languished for several years, using uncompetitive engines from Ford and Peugeot as the Renault-powered cars of Benetton and Williams drove off into the distance.

Mercedes-Benz returned to Formula One as an engine supplier in 1995 and were initially used only by McLaren. Four seasons later, the partnership took its first Drivers’ title with Mika Hakkinen, and claimed the Constructors’ title in the same year. Another Drivers’ title followed a year later, with Lewis Hamilton adding a third in 2008.

The relationship has even continued onto the road, with McLaren and Mercedes-Benz having jointly developed the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren road car back in 2003.

But even though McLaren has seen its fair share of success using Mercedes-Benz power, there’s no doubt that a return to Honda engines, and the subsequent evocation of the Senna/Prost era, would make for a great story.

Source;
http://www.redbull.com/en/motorsports/f1/stories/1331583536261/mclaren-and-honda-getting-back-together-