GPWizard F1 Forum
F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: Wizzo on May 16, 2007, 09:33:49 AM
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Honda are spending time and money on trying to save the planet. In the meantime their performances are becoming a Formula One joke.
If you visit the Honda (UK) homepage at the moment you will see “Honda. Power of Dreams” and “Discover Hondamentalism”. It may not become apparent just how ironic that is until you consider their fortunes in Formula One right now.
There is certainly nothing in the Honda cars powering Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello’s dreams of winning a world championship. And to make matters worse, the Super Aguri team, who are basically using Honda’s 2006 car with a slightly different livery and badge, have consistently out-performed the 2007 Honda car in every race this season. Now that is a perfect example of Honda-mentalism if ever there was one.
Super Aguri are technically not Honda’s B team, in the way that Scuderia Torro Rosso is Red Bull’s second team. However, they are largely a Japanese team, using Honda engines and pretty much everything discarded by Honda from recent seasons. But while the Aguris simply gave the cars a new lick of paint and some pretty sponsors logos, Honda, with all of their wisdom (and mentalism) opted for an image of Earth, entirely deprived of sponsorship or otherwise, in a feeble attempt to give a damn about doing something to save our planet.
You’re running F1 cars, for crying out loud! Not only at 17 races this year, with an hour of qualifying and a few hours of practice per race weekend, but also the thousands upon thousands of miles covered in testing both this and next year’s car before the start of the season, at the end of the season and random weekends in between races. I think it’s rather too late to be even considering the effects on the environment and making a difference in your own lifetime when you burn the amount of fuel they do.
Honda – power of dreams? If you’re Anthony Davidson, the guy Honda didn’t give a race seat to, the answer is yes. Honda, by way of supplying Super Aguri with a car and engine, are powering his dreams as he flirts with the top 10 in qualifying for races and a points finish in the race, while the men Honda preferred in their ‘A’ team struggle to get out of the garage, never mind supposedly challenging for the world title.
Honda have been an embarrassment this season for a major constructor with the kind of money they have available to them, a laughing stock, and they certainly give me a great deal of amusement whenever I see just how poor they are. They look like a team without a clue, who perhaps have just entered the sport and have a five-year plan in place to become world champions.
Now that sounds familiar. Anybody recall the days when the Honda team entered F1 as BAR with Dave Richards in charge and his plans to be world champions? Well, several years and a number of driver changes later, I am still waiting to see this assault on the sharp end of the championships. One would expect that Honda buying into the team further with their knowledge of motor-sport would go a long way. Clearly not.
There was little cheer for Honda in the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Sunday. They had to settle for Barrichello's 13th place, which was three ahead of Hamilton's Super Aguri but still way off the pace. Not what I wanted or expected but enjoyable nonetheless.
Did you know that Honda own the Suzuka International Racing Course in Japan – the venue for the Japanese Grand Prix since 1987? From 2007, however, the Japanese Grand Prix will be held at the revamped Fuji Speedway in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Shizuoka Prefecture. The Fuji Speedway hosted the first Japanese GPs back in the 70s and after a million pound redevelopment for all concerned the Toyota-owned circuit will replace Honda’s aging Suzuka.
It would appear that Honda cannot power their own dreams and I cannot see it getting any better for them in the short term.
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I think that Super Aguri out-doing Honda is the biggest surprise of the season so far, even bigger than Massa out-doing Kimi or Hamilton out-doing Alonso. I liked seeing the underdog do well. Who knows, they might become the Jamican Bobsled Team of F1!
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I'm surprised how bad Albers is driving this year.Tiago was a much better driver imo and the only reason he lost his seat is because Spyker
wanted a Dutch driver