MOTORSPORT: Home-ground humiliation for Honda

Mercedes’ F1 team was back to form in the Japanese Grand Prix after the aberration of Singapore a week earlier, while Daniel Ricciardo’s race was as good as over within a couple of hundred metres after a brilliant start.

But the story out of Suzuka was Honda. More precisely, the public humiliation of the Japanese company by Fernando Alonso, the dual world champion reputedly being paid almost A$60 million per year to drive a McLaren car with Honda’s V6 hybrid power unit behind him.

Frustrated at the lack of competitiveness of that unit in the 14th race of the reunited McLaren and Honda, Alonso called it over his two-way radio to the pit wall “embarrassing, very embarrassing” and later a “GP2 engine” – a reference to the far less powerful motors in F1’s feeder category.

Alonso’s teammate, Jenson Button, another world champion reportedly earning a quarter of Alonso’s salary (still over $12 million!), kept his barb until after the race, saying that driving his McLaren-Honda was like “a Samurai without his shield or sword”.

Ron Dennis, the 68-year-old former mechanic to Australia’s late triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham and who runs McLaren (although he is no longer principal of its F1 team), was unhappy at the criticism – especially that of Alonso – on the day that Honda’s three most senior executives were at the Suzuka circuit that the company owns.

Rather than admonish the drivers publicly, Dennis vowed to deal with the criticisms behind closed doors.

Dennis said Alonso’s remarks had been “not very productive” but acknowledged that the comments of both his drivers were the result of frustrations by two champions unhappy that the Honda power unit has been such a disappointment.

Alonso finished 11th at Suzuka yesterday and Button 16th. In its worst season in the half-century of its existence, McLaren is ninth of the 10 teams in the constructors’ world championship with just 17 points.

Its drivers have just four finishes in the top 10 between them this season and, despite the ignominy of yesterday’s placings, Suzuka was just the fourth time both McLaren-Hondas had finished, albeit a lap down.

Andrew Benson, the BBC’s chief F1 writer and who has crystallised best this season the disparities among the four makes of power unit, reported last night: “The standard-setting Mercedes and Ferrari F1 engines have about 900bhp. At its best Honda’s engine is at least 100bhp down on the Mercedes, but it loses a further 160-180bhp in the latter part of the longest straights because its inefficient hybrid system runs out of power boost.”

The Renault units that Ricciardo’s Red Bull Racing team is discarding at the end of this season are below Mercedes and Ferrari and perhaps not even a match for Mercedes in ultimate power but with better torque – and the Red Bull RB11 is generally agreed to have the best aerodynamics.

Despite the dirty linen being aired in public, Dennis and his drivers agreed post-race (before any formal debrief and perhaps dressing down of Alonso) that Honda is McLaren’s only hope of returning to the top in F1, where they so famously were with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

“You’re not going to win a world championship if you have a second-string engine [as a customer team, as McLaren’s long-time British rival Williams is with Mercedes],” Dennis said.

“It’s just not going to happen. Therefore we have to go through the pain. We have to go through this learning curve and get a competitive engine.

“That’s not a derogatory comment against Honda. They are totally committed. They understand what needs to be done, they’re increasing resources, putting more money and effort into it, and we will get there. It’s just a bit painful at the moment.”

Significant improvement is unlikely in the five GPs remaining this season, but Alonso and Button (now set to continue after signs he may have been going to retire or be terminated) have confidence that Honda will make big strides before next season.

“Definitely I can see McLaren as the only team that will challenge Mercedes in the near future,” said Alonso, who departed Ferrari two years early after five seasons that could not produce a third world title for him after his two with Renault in 2005-06.

“Right now it’s tough times – we don’t have the toys to fight… But the positive thing is that everyone knows the problems. We go deep into the solutions we need – but we cannot hide this is frustrating.”

Button added: “I think what is coming is positive – it’s just going to hurt for the rest of this season.”

Formula 1 World Championship driver standings after 14 of 19 rounds – 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 277 points; 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 229; 3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 218; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 119; 5. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 111; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 97; 7. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 73; 8. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Red Bull-Renault) 66; 9. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Mercedes) 44;
10. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 39; 11. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 38; 12. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Toro Rosso-Renault) 32; 13. Felipe Nasr (Brazil, Sauber-Ferrari) 17; 14. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Lotus-Mercedes) 16; 15. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Renault) 12; 16. Fernando Alonso (Spain, McLaren-Honda) 11; 17. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden, Sauber-Ferrari) 9; 18. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Honda) 6.

The Mercedes factory team notched its eighth ‘one-two’ this season, with Nico Rosberg almost 19sec behind Hamilton at the finish after having started from pole position but been squeezed out of the lead by the second turn and dropping to fourth as Hamilton shot clear.

Hamilton now leads Rosberg by 48 points in the drivers’ championship with Sebastian Vettel, winner of the three GPs for Ferrari that Mercedes has not won this year, another 11 points back.

The irony of the latest Mercedes quinella was that the Hamilton and Rosberg got comparatively little exposure in the race telecast, which focussed on midfield battles. However, there were suspicions that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone may have been treating Mercedes ‘mean’ for its refusal to supply its power units to Red Bull next season.

Lotus, which could be placed in administration tonight unless it can satisfy a London court that overdue taxes will be paid [as part of the likely Renault buyout of the team] had both cars in the points at Suzuka.

Romain Grosjean was seventh in the first of the Lotus-Mercedes – behind the factory Mercs, the Ferraris of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, the Williams-Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and the Force India-Mercedes of Nico Hulkenberg – and Pastor Maldonado eighth.

The Renault-powered Toro Rossos of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Junior were ninth and 10th. In particular it was another brilliant effort from Verstappen in his last GP as a 17-year-old.

Red Bull Racing failed to score a world championship point for the first time in 32 GPs as Russian Daniil Kyvat came in 13th in what was virtually a complete new car after his huge crash at the end of Saturday’s qualifying, while Ricciardo was 15th after his start-line drama.

Brilliant start for Ricciardo, then a big letdown
Aussie, Ricciardo, called his start from seventh on the grid “a blinder … actually too good”.

The West Australian accelerated to the right of the slugglish Williams-Mercedes of Felipe Massa, but got squeezed between the Brazilian and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

Ricciardo’s left rear tyre and Massa’s right front rubbed and both punctured, meaning both had to motor almost an entire lap on three wheels for replacements.

Ricciardo’s RB11 also had suffered floor damage and his best lap in the race was 4 seconds slower than Hamilton’s and about 1.8 seconds slower than teammate Kyvat.

“At the start the best line for me was straight down the middle,” Ricciardo said.

“I saw the gap between Kimi and Felipe and I knew it was close, but I thought they would make a bit of room… I guess there wasn’t enough room or they kept closing on me… We’ll call it a racing incident.

“It was a shame as I think I would have comfortably had both of them before turn one and the race would have been completely different.

“But we had the puncture, and that damaged the floor so we lost some downforce… I tried to do what I could. We started to catch some cars towards the end, but by then I didn’t have the grip to do anything… On a positive note, even with the damaged floor, the car was handling well,” the Aussie stated.