I didn't know that...

[Scott]

A good non-techie friendly explanation to Honda's troubles and potential fixes.  An interesting read.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/34208407

[Jericoke]

I like the discussion of 'friendly' versus 'maximum' downforce.  Very clearly the designers and drivers are not in meaningful conversation.

As for the Honda engine being poorly designed, what was the point of taking an extra year if not to copy a few good ideas?  Even if they were far into the current design, if they see what Mercedes was doing right, why not incorporate that?  Or are the FIA rules so restrictive that Honda had to use 'tokens' to fix a mistake made on day 1?  If so, good luck finding other suppliers.  If not... what the hell was Honda doing?

[lkjohnson1950]

Reminds me of the problems Kenny Roberts had with Yamaha at Daytona. After concentrating on Moto-GP for several seasons, Roberts and Yamaha returned to Daytona for the 200. The Yamaha engineers brought 3 engines with 3 levels of power. Roberts ended up using the least powerful for the race. He said the Yamaha people were obviously disappointed, they wanted him to use the most powerful one. He said the 2 more powerful engines hit the 2 stroke power bump, where the power increases hugely as the engine comes on the pipe, right in the middle to exit area of the corner. He either had to wait for the bike to come fully up and straight before opening the throttle or the bike tried to pitch him off. With the low power engine he could be on the throttle early and let the bike run. And he just could not get the Yamaha people to understand that. Similar problem here I think.