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Peter Lyon2 Oct 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: McLaren Honda warms up

Honda whets media appetite for its Formula One comeback next year

One of the most successful combinations in Formula One history was the 1988-92 collaboration of McLaren and Honda. Between them they won three constructors' titles as drivers Aryton Senna and Alain Prost shared triple drivers' championships.

The fact that all three titles were decided in somewhat controversial circumstances in Japan, where the F1 GP circus returns this weekend, has become racing folklore. The team disbanded in 1992 when Honda pulled out of F1.

Come March 2015, however, the legendary 'McLaren Honda' name will live again, when it returns to the F1 grid in Melbourne with hopes of more glory.

While Honda engineers were busy putting the final touches to their new F1 engine at the Tochigi R&D centre two hours north of Tokyo, the company’s public relations wing was unleashing a glorious trip down memory lane at the Twin Ring Motegi race track as it freed three F1 winning cars from their museum mothballs.

The Honda Collection Hall located inside the Twin Ring Motegi complex is home to more than 300 examples of the company’s former race cars and motorcycles. And to celebrate the company’s return to F1 and whet the appetites of local media, Honda pulled out the Holy Grail of its F1 machines, Ayrton Senna’s 1988-winning McLaren Honda MP4/4, Alain Prost’s 1989-winning McLaren Honda MP4/5 and Nigel Mansell’s Williams Honda FW11.

Each car is legendary for its fight-to-the-finish competitiveness and its driver’s unrelenting push for that year’s championship.

Honda is particularly proud of this. That’s why it has a dedicated roster of half a dozen mechanics whose job it is to work year-round on maintaining the company’s racing heritage and keeping its race cars in working order.

Race engineers started the impromptu celebration by firing up the engines and revving them for a minute or so before a Honda test driver pushed each car to the redline.

First to break the silence in the Motegi forest was the Williams Honda FW11, the car piloted by Mansell in 1986. Powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged V6, the Honda RA166E engine developed an incredible 772kW at 12,000rpm in qualifying.

Designed by Patrick Head and Frank Dernie as a serious challenger to McLaren, the Williams Honda car driven by Mansell captured four straight wins before Frank Williams’ near-fatal road crash demoralised the team. The tragedy eventually led to Prost taking the 1986 title, but Williams had enough points to capture the constructor’s crown.

The McLaren Honda MP4/4 is arguably Honda’s most famous F1 car and one of the most coveted in motorsport. In 1988 in the MP4/4, Senna and Prost engaged in a season-long battle, winning 15 of the 16 races – seven for Senna and eight for Prost.

At the Portuguese GP, their relationship soured when Senna squeezed Prost against the pit wall. Prost won but afterwards said, "It was dangerous. If he wants the world championship that badly he can have it.”

Prost scored more points that year but due to the fact that only the best 11 results counted, it was Senna who took the title at the penultimate race in Japan.

To complete Honda’s trip back to its golden age, engineers fired up Prost’s winning McLaren Honda MP4/5 from 1989 and let media compare the difference in engine notes.

With turbos banned in 1989, Honda switched to a 3.5-litre V10 that captured 10 wins out of 16 races -- more than enough to secure both the driver and constructor titles.

For the second year in succession, the driver’s championship was decided at the Japanese GP, this time in Prost's favour after he and Senna collided. The Brazilian initially recovered and won the race but was later disqualified.

As the MP4/4 lapped the makeshift track, you could almost visualise Senna’s signature green and yellow helmet perched in front of the Marlboro logo, as he challenged Prost for the lead.

Honda has a glorious heritage with McLaren, a winning combination that it wants to resurrect in 2015. But with a dominant Mercedes and a relentless Red Bull, the team will have its work cut out for it.

While artists' impressions accompany this article, a source close to Honda tells us that we will get our first glimpse of the new prototype in action soon, when it tests its new 1.6-litre V6 racer at the Abu Dhabi track.

For the championship’s sake, let’s hope it sounds more powerful than the current crop of 1.6-litre turbo engines, which have been widely criticised for lacking the aural delights of their naturally aspirated 2.4-litre V8 forebears. Indeed, F1 could do with some healthy nostalgia.

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Written byPeter Lyon
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