Honda Racing F1 Wins Something!

[Monty]

If you think the Global Warming issue is 'alarmist tosh' you have got your head firmly stuck in the sand. 'All' the scientific evidence points towards climate collapse. The term Global Warming is unfortunate because it doesn't really describe what is happening. The problem is climate change. Hence floods, droughts, bush fires....all worse than at anytime in history.
It can be fixed but not by attacking motorists. The two biggest problems are un-restricted industry and the cut and burn agriculture that is stripping the rain forests.
I am currently in China and the pollution is frightening. The developing world can save or kill the planet. If you value your Childrens, Children's future then don't kid yourself that the planet hasn't got major problems.
Lecture over.
By the way, let's hope Honda make a car that can finish and win races next season.

[SennaMan]

nah Monty they will NEVER produce a winning car while they have this Japanese/European misorganisation!

mind you they do not have to as I am sure their very clever brand imaging and liverie etc has won every b green award going

so they now have more 'gongs' and brownie points than actually winning a GP let alone the WDC/WMCC

you and Wiz have hit the climate change on the button - the clearing of the rain forests has had more effect on global climate than carbon emissions but politicians get to tax the latter

that's why the motorist is being slugged

it is so easy to bemuse the ignorant masses mate

been doin it for centuries but now it is THE art form

just follow the b money mate

[cosworth151]

By the way, let's hope Honda make a car that can finish and win races next season.

There already is such a car: the Super Aguri SA07!

[Monty]

Sennaman and Cos are (as always) talking a lot of sense.
I can't help wondering if the problem at Honda may sit firmly with Nick Fry. I don't know the man but I sense something is missing. Let's face it he doesn't command peoples immediate respect like Ron Dennis or Frank Williams, he doesn't have the flair of Flavio, and he does't talk bo**ocks like Luca. The success of Super Aguri suggests that the original 'building blocks' weren't half bad.

[Ian]

At last, well done Wiz, a technical version of what I've always said, Mother Earth going through her cycles.

[SennaMan]

Sennaman and Cos are (as always) talking a lot of sense.
I can't help wondering if the problem at Honda may sit firmly with Nick Fry. I don't know the man but I sense something is missing. Let's face it he doesn't command peoples immediate respect like Ron Dennis or Frank Williams, he doesn't have the flair of Flavio, and he does't talk bo**ocks like Luca. The success of Super Aguri suggests that the original 'building blocks' weren't half bad.

thanks mate, very generous of you and while the plaudits are going around may I say I greatly enjoy your perceptive comments like the one you penned about nick FRY as quoted above.

perhaps a stronger and more dynamic person than nick would get things done at HONDA but i think the problem really lies with the top management of the HONDA conglomerate wanting different outcomes than soley racing success from their considerable investment in their HONDA F1 team.

actually i have even seen a TV interview with nick discussing this very aspect of conflicting expectations and how both 'sides' are now communicating more clearly about them and how his team has been delivering more of the technical information etc HONDA Japan require for their car production and corporate needs

[sorry but i cannot remember which site the interview was on but i will do a 'Google' and let you know if i find it]

while i have some sympathy for this approach i cannot help thinking it must dilute and mitigate nick's and his team's racing focus but as you suggest monty perhaps a more 'complete' even aggressive CEO would clear away non-racing peripherals and demand more emphasis on racing results and less on the 'Save Our Planet' awards

mind you on a wider global scale and long-term, their 'green' and Earth caring stance and image may be of more value than winning races!

however, having said that surely in any endeavour the aim must be to achieve excellence? - and as we all know the HONDA F1 has a very long way to go even to match SUPER AGURI

i just hope that HONDA with all of its rich heritage of motor racing success does get the package right so JB and his team mate have a car worthy of their talent   

 

[leather12]

I liked all of your answers, global warming of the earth exists, but if you look back at september 11, planes were not allowed to fly for at least a full day  what was the consequence?? It went warmer, immediately...imagine on the long term, it seems our pollution get the T° lower....somebody must know, but certainly not us..
The main problem is not pollution, but finding drinkable water...

For Honda to win will be another story, remember japanese are never wanting to lose their faces, so Nick Fry is just a scapegoat in my eyes...Indeed not a top man, but someone that can listen to orders for sure
Another point is ,Japan has always copied, here they have to create a novelty, that's much more difficult

[Wizzo]

Takeo Fukui, who was a chief engineer and director of Honda Racing before heading Honda's worldwide operations, described the 2007 Honda F1 season as "unthinkable results."

"I want to already forget about this year," he told a group of reporters at the Honda R&D facility outside Tokyo before the Tokyo motor show. "We are aware of 'some issues' with Honda-operated teams," Fukui said, and "next year, we will not allow to happen what happened this year."

[Steven Roy]

I think it is completely unfair to say Japan has always copied.  Look at the electronics industry where new products are regularly available in Japan a year before they are available anywhere else in the world.  Japanese manufacturing processes are copied the world over and this is not something new.  I worked for a company in the early 1980s that used techniques developed in Japan.  When manufacturing and technology industries were introduced to Japan they were all based on copies of other people's products but soon they found better ways to make the same product and soon they were making better products than anyone.  Degner is the a good example.  Look at how they took the information supplied and turned it round to dominate the whole industry.

[Monty]

More correctly, in the past Japan copied, now it innovates (China will be next!!).
I think Honda Corporation overstretched themselves in 2007. They failed with a new design of Moto GP bike (much smaller and lower than conventional designs resulting in very nimble handling but a lot of instability). Nett result they were beaten most of the season by Ducati, Yamaha, Suzuki and even Kawasaki at times.
The Honda 125cc GP bikes were beaten by Aprillia, KTM and Derbi.
The HRC World Superbike team had new chassis, suspension and engine parts but got beaten by the Hanspree private team. We all know what happened in F1.
Perhaps they will limit interests only to Moto GP and F1 next year.