Clarification on the where the PU is between races ect...
Teams get to have one PU in their factory all year (Exeption being Mercedes, Ferrari, Mclaren and Red Bull) for fire up on new chassis at the start of the year.
Teams do have three 'Travel PU' per season where the chassis is connected to the gearbox. This is usually a old PU that has seen its milage (usually a old test PU from a pre season or mid season test) on track.
Teams, who are not have a works provider, have a 'engine room' for the engine guys to work on a engine in the teams factory, like Sauber/Ferrari or Williams/Mercedes. Same here is for gearboxes. These rooms are tightly controlled by the engine supplier, usually having a different key card for entry, and only to certain personnel.
Teams do not often have access to a full PU in their factory, you are lucky if its 14 days a entire year. In that time, there is usually at least 2 Mercedes/Ferrari guys with it at all times, Renault operate differently by only having 1 guy. Honda will probably operate like a works team and leave it under camera like Mercedes/Ferrari.
Anyone who thinks Honda won't have had a look at the Mercedes when it was at Woking last year is deluded, they will have had a good gander. However how good a look they had and how much info they can take from that is another matter. They may have had a minute here and a minute there, but they won't have been able to take good enough pics of it, if they had the time. HOWEVER... I did notice a few "Japanese' origin/looking guys at the back of the Mclaren garage last year who i didn't see there before, just makes me wonder if they were put there as spy for Honda. But again, if Mercedes were doing things right, Mclaren would be a step behind the works motor, if not a entire generation behind as the Williams and Force India seemed to have lots more extra over the Mclaren, it was only when FI went down that blind alley aero wise did McLaren catch up enough. However that generation behind that McLaren to my eyes had was better than the Renault and Ferrari PUs for the most part.
I think Honda will come out with the second best PU in 2015, but if they get their way with the FIA, and i think they will come to an arrangement i the next week or so over the engine freeze, they will develop their engine faster than the guys who were there a year. I think Honda and the FIA will come to the arrangement that the engine will be Homologated on the 28th of February 2015, but i also think that the first two PU components in rotation will have to be in that configuration. Meaning half way through the season Honda will come out with a new PU and start to motor as they will have been able to set up things for then. Id say the new PU will see the test at the Red Bull Ring test the raced from event 10 or 11 onward if not from the first race back after the summer break in Belgum. All dependant on how reliable the Honda donkey is and if the drivers have had to take a 3rd PU by then.
I think that there will be other changes to the PU rules for 2016, so if Honda has been intelligent, it will have engineered the ICE to be able to accept the Twin Turbo idea and the change in crankshaft and the simplified and possibly standardised in some respects/areas ERS. This way Honda could be able to produce a PU that may be more of a advantage in 2016 and use 2015 as a learning year for the McLaren team and Honda PU guys. That is if the powers to be want to increase the power to the 1,000 horsepower mark and increase the volume that extra 5dB that would be able to make the promotors happy as it would not only make the hardcore fan happy on the noise side, but also be loud enough to be able to attract the family audience to a race track, as anything higher than 140dB is not acceptable to the family audience, the V8s were 145dB+.
F1 is changing, i think the future of the sport in technical terms is in good shape, it just needs a little tinkering for cost reasons, but i think the tech rules are the only thing that is right about the sport. Its the Sporting and cost sides id need a rant that would last pages and pages.
- Login or Register
No account yet? Sign up
