What Honda's return means to Formula 1

Honda's return to Formula 1 has been a rumor since last season. Now the company will announce its return to the sport after 4 years of absence. A welcome news that grabs the attention from the recent tyre scandals. 

The 2014 turbo engine era is knocking on our door. And with Pirelli changing tyre compounds 4 weeks from now, it will be a challenge to prepare for the upcoming season without compromising this year's development.

The bad news for the Renault-powered teams like Red Bull, Lotus, Williams and Caterham are the immense costs of the new turbo charger from the French engine manufacturer. The estimated cost of the Renault power source will be around 20 million euros, while Mercedes and Ferrari are charging 15 and 10 million euros respectively. Red Bull, which is operating on a bigger budget than Williams and Lotus might consider staying with Renault for 2014.

On the other hand, Lotus, Williams and Caterham, teams operating on a tighter budget, might switch to other power sources next year. With Honda returning as an engine supplier in 2015, that's good news for these teams, especially if Honda can undercut Renault in terms of pricing. 

So far only McLaren are expected to use Honda engines, as the team prepares to part from its current supplier at the end of 2014. McLaren will also change its title sponsor from Vodafone to Telmex. It's likely that the name change from VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES will move on to TELMEX MCLAREN HONDA by 2015. 

Honda's return will no doubt draw attention to other engine suppliers and car manufacturers. Volkswagen and Porsche have presented keen interest to enter Formula 1, but the costs were simply too high and that might change after 2014. Last year, BMW has also been tipped to make a return to the sport after their shock exit in 2009. Whether Honda's move will influence the rest remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it was finally time for some good news after the tyre scandal in recent weeks. 

Honda will announce Formula 1 return this week

Honda will hold a press conference this week to announce a partnership with McLaren in 2015. This will mean the end of a long partnership between Mercedes and the Woking team. 

Honda are expected to announce shortly they will return to Formula One in 2015 as an engine supplier to British team McLaren to revive their championship-winning partnership, a company source said Wednesday.

Honda president Takanobu Ito is to make the announcement as early as this week, the source said, confirming domestic press reports.

"Honda has not officially denied these reports," said the source, who asked not to be named. "Please prepare yourself for the announcement."

The Japanese automaker pulled out of F1 after the 2008 season, ending an involvement that began in the 1960s, in a bid to cut costs during the economic downturn that ravaged Japanese exports to the United States and Europe.

It sold its team to former principal Ross Brawn the next year.

A recent change in F1 rules, promoting the use of environmentally friendlier turbo engines, has made the comeback decision easier because Honda could readily transfer the technology to its commercial vehicles.

If realised, the plan would see a reunion of the McLaren-Honda alliance that conquered F1 from 1988 to 1991 with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at the wheel.

Honda started racing in F1 as a full-fledged team in 1964, and stayed until 1968. During that time, it won two races.

Then, as a supplier of engines to other teams including McLaren, Williams and Lotus, it raced from 1983 to 1992 and won 69 races.

After an eight-year hiatus, Honda returned as an engine provider and then part owner of the BAR team from 2000 to 2005. In 2006 it took full control and renamed it Honda.

Championship already a three-way race

After Spain, it is now becoming clear that the championship will go down as a fight between three drivers: Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso. 

Sebastian Vettel has a slight edge over Kimi Raikkonen, with the Finn trailing the defending world champion by a mere 4 points. Alonso is slightly behind with 72 points to his name, 17 points behind Vettel. With Ferrari's recent resurgence, that difference is also minimal.

Having dominated the Australian and the Bahrain Grand Prixs, Raikkonen and Vettel were left scratching their heads after Alonso sprinted away from the pack in Spain to take a comfortable win. It was the Spaniard's second victory after triumphing in China as well. 

Vettel and Alonso have two victories so far, while Raikkonen has only won the opening race. But the Finn is the most consistent out of these three, with 1 win, 3 second place finishes and a 7th place in Malaysia. He is two races away from beating Schumacher's record of most points finishes in a row. It should come as no surprise after Raikkonen's solid comeback year. 

Red Bull are currently struggling to understand the tyres, which are relatively the car's Achilles heal. It has downforce and speed but is unable to manage the tyre degradation as well as the Ferrari and the Lotus. It's, however, only a matter of time before Adrian Newey comes up with a solution.

The Ferrari on the other hand has decent tyre management and is as fast as the Red Bull. A good news for Alonso, who was able to fight for the championship already last year with a worse car. Reliability seems to be a slight hiccup, with DRS failures here and there. 

The Lotus is a mystery to most. The car has excellent tyre management, with Raikkonen always being able to do one stop less than the above two in every race. The speed is also there, albeit there is work to be done to improve qualifying position. With a relatively tighter budget than Ferrari and Red Bull and having recently lost their technical director, time will tell whether the dark horses will be able to keep up with the development. 

Why the Pirelli tyre row is now becoming ridiculous

In the aftermath of the events at the Spanish Grand Prix, Pirelli was bombarded by angry fans with accusations that the tyre manufacturer is destroying the nature of the sport. But are they pointing fingers at the wrong suspect?

Outrageous and unacceptable. That's how the situation at the Spanish Grand Prix was described by F1 fans and pundits alike. 80 pit stops all in all, a lack of aggression and overtaking is not what everybody expected after the Italian brand promised a more durable compound. Drivers are complaining that the cars' potential cannot be fully exploited with the fear of having a sudden puncture or tyre failure. And usually what the drivers say is golden. 

It's no secret that this tyre war is a rupture in the system and is plaguing the sport more than it should. 

But are Pirelli being righteously accused? After all, it is the sport's governing body, the FIA, that asked them to spice things up and deliver multiple stop races with high degrading rubber

This might have gone a stretch too far. We end up with drivers not pushing 100% as they have to nurse the tyres. Qualifying has lost all its importance: with Mercedes 5 tenths faster on Saturday, but losing all the performance on race day due to tyre degradation. 

Fans are now demanding longer lasting tyres for races in which a driver can push a car to its limits. The fans are not alone in this. 


Red Bull's RB9 is widely believed to be the car that produces the most downforce in Formula 1 this year, but it cannot make use of all that peak performance because it puts the tyres under too much stress. That is why Red Bull and Dietrich Mateschitz are in favor of Pirelli changing the structure of the tyres by the time we set sail for the British Grand Prix

The nature of the challenge of looking after tyres means cars that are more mechanically sympathetic like the Lotus and Ferrari are better equipped when it comes to being consistent in the races.

Therefore, if Ferrari and Lotus are perfectly capable of balancing speed and tyre management, why should there be a change? Formula 1 has always been about nursing either the engine, the gearbox, the brakes and now the tyres. It is a sport in which the team and the driver that is capable of mastering the rules and conditions wins. 

Red Bull closing in on Raikkonen deal

After James Allison's departure from Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen's move to Red Bull now seems imminent. SkySports is reporting that talks are already being held between Red Bull and Raikkonen's management. 

James Allison was the main contributing factor to Lotus' recent success. Having lost their technical director, Lotus will certainly have troubles keeping Raikkonen for next year. The Finn had a lot of respect for Allison and his departure will set things in motion regarding the 2007 world champion's move to Red Bull in 2014. 

Raikkonen has been backed by numerous F1 pundits to join Red Bull in 2014. The team have a solid resource base and with Adrian Newey as the mastermind, they will likely be in contention for the world title for a few more years. Allison might be joining them and if that's the case, Raikkonen will surely follow. 

Dietrisch Mateschitz and Helmut Marko have both presented keen interest in Raikkonen and have not ruled out the possibility of hiring the Finn. Of course, Raikkonen's lifestyle and image would boost Red Bull's marketing system and the 2007 world champion would get a car capable of fighting for the world championship. 

Todat, SkySports reported that Red Bull have started negotiations with Raikkonen's management regarding a contract for 2014, but don't expect an announcement until August. 

Whatever the case, Raikkonen obviously has a word or two in this. The Finn might not want to get involved in all the PR activities at Red Bull. He's limited on PR duties at Lotus and at the moment he seems happy where he is especially that he's sill fighting for race wins and podiums. Nevertheless, if we look at Allison's case, things can change rather quickly and it would be a severe blow below the belt for Lotus if they lose their star driver.  

Spanish GP Preview: Hunt for title resumes in Europe

The Spanish GP weekend is one of the most important dates in the calendar. Big updates, a new tyre compound and the hunt to stop Vettel from securing the title early continues. 

The Circuit de Catalunya is where Formula One teams come to get answers. It's a favourite venue for testing and the engineers have reams of historical data, not least the two weeks-worth they gathered during pre-season testing earlier this year. Red Bull arrives as favourite for victory but there are signs that Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes could give them a run for their money and all four teams will have updates to try to shuffle their way up the order. Sunday's result, therefore, should give one of the clearest pictures yet of how the cars stack up.


On Form

Sebastian Vettel's victory in Bahrain looked an awful lot like a return to his dominant form of 2011 and the end of 2012. However, we shouldn't be handing him the championship trophy just yet, as his main rivals were slightly hobbled over the weekend - Fernando Alonso with a sticking DRS and Kimi Raikkonen with a poor qualifying lap. What we can say with some certainty is that the Red Bull likes harder compound tyres, which backs up its early-season complaints that it was creating too much load for the softer Pirellis to handle. The medium and (new) hard compounds on offer this weekend should suit Red Bull, therefore, and the Circuit de Catalunya has long been a happy hunting ground for the team. But while Vettel looks capable of extending his lead in the championship this weekend, the next two races in Monaco and Canada will offer a very different challenge.
Out of Form

Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis gave his team just six out of ten for its performances at the opening rounds of the season. Considering the first four races have included a win in China, it goes to show just how disappointed Ferrari is with itself after Fernando Alonso's DNF in Malaysia and DRS problem in Bahrain. The team knows that to compete with Red Bull it needs to be consistently near the top, and compared to last year, Ferrari's race tactics have fallen short. On the plus side the car's performance is much more competitive than last year so making up the deficit will not seem as daunting. However, its recovery must start in Barcelona.


One to watch

At this track a year ago it looked as though Williams had announced its return to the front end of the grid with Pastor Maldonado's well-deserved victory. By contrast, getting both cars into Q2 this weekend will be seen as an achievement after a terrible start to the season. On the plus side, the team is coming to Spain off the back of a successful straight-line test and has had three weeks to go back to the drawing board and modify the troublesome FW35. In testing the car ran well at the Circuit de Catalunya so the team will also be hoping to draw on some of its pre-season data to set things straight.

James Allison in talks with Ferrari

The British AUTOSPORT magazine is reporting that James Allison is closing in on a move to join Ferrari in a senior technical position, but a deal has not been finalized yet. 

After intense speculation about the future of Allison, whose exit as technical director at Lotus was confirmed on Wednesday, AUTOSPORT understands that he and Ferrari are working towards an agreement.

If the talks come off, then Allison will return to the team where he spent five years from 2000 during its most successful recent spell.

It is not clear exactly what position Allison is being lined up for, but it is likely that he will work alongside its current technical director Pat Fry as the outfit bids to bolster its structure.

However, no deal is yet in place, which means there remains the remote possibility that a move may not come off if final terms cannot be agreed.

With no contract yet finalised, and non-disclosure agreements in place over the discussions, Ferrari has played down talk about Allison rejoining the team.

When asked whether Allison was joining the team, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said at an event in Maranello on Wednesday: "I don't know any truth in that. I must deny it."

However, when speaking about the wider Allison situation, di Montezemolo later said: "We will communicate when there is news to say, but not where there are rumours."

Allison, who is one of the most highly-rated design engineers in F1, has been the target of several teams in recent months with his contract at Lotus coming to an end later this year.

McLaren made an approach in the wake of Paddy Lowe's switch to Mercedes, but were declined, while Williams is also understood to have sounded Allison out about a senior team role.

Of other teams that would be logical contenders, Mercedes already has a wealth of senior technical figures, while Red Bull still remains fully focused on the structure that revolves around Adrian Newey.

Lotus has replaced Allison with Nick Chester with immediate effect.

Lotus confirms James Allison shock exit

The Enstone team has suffered a massive blow today as technical director James Allison decided to leave the team and join one of the big guns. Lotus have confirmed that Nick Chester will take Allison's place 

Allison, one of the most highly rated designers in the Formula 1 paddock, was viewed as a key asset for Lotus as it pushed to challenge Red Bull for title glory this year.

But just months after initial speculation that other outfits were trying to lure him away, high level sources at the outfit have revealed that Allison has handed in his notice at the Enstone-based team.

It is not known where Allison is heading, but the most obvious destinations would be McLaren, Mercedes or Ferrari.

Sources suggest that Allison has signed a contract forbidding him from revealing his new employer until it makes the announcement.

The technical director is also rumored to follow Raikkonen to Red Bull next year.