With Jenson Button finishing P8 in Monaco, Honda knows they have to turn their focus back to extracting as much power as possible from the power unit.
Monaco isn’t a very demanding track as far as the engines are concerned. However, with three very fast tracks coming up in Canada, Austria and Silverstone, Honda chief Yasuhisa Arai knows that McLaren’s main concern will be more power.
When discussing the race from last weekend, Arai said that “Horsepower was not so important, using only partial throttle, which is a very sensitive area, so we made the driveability good for Jenson and Fernando. They had a good feeling. But now we need more power. Please give me the power. If you have any idea, I will accept. I know we need more power, but it’s not easy to get.”
Sounds to us like they’re not exactly sure how and when they might expect any breakthrough with this issue, which isn’t what McLaren fans needed to hear.
Arai also said that “with heavy braking the energy recovery is also important” when discussing the track in Montreal.
Canada is indeed a very demanding circuit, on the engines as well as the brakes. If we were to be realistic about it, expecting McLaren to score more points in two weeks time isn’t probably something that’s going to happen.
In fact, we expect all Mercedes-powered cars to have a (typical) advantage over them. Still, it will be interesting to see if they can at least catch up to the Renault power unit.
Story references: Autosport
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