Honda boss admits to “tough” return

Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai has admitted the team’s return to Formula 1 has been harder than he anticipated.

The engine suppliers expected that transforming McLaren into a race-winning team wouldn’t be easy, but their woeful performances for the majority of this season are worse than predicted.

However, Arai is adamant that the team will fight for podiums before the end of the season.

He said: “Expectations were always going to be high because of our illustrious history with McLaren. Most of the fans have a great image of McLaren-Honda’s heritage so they expected us to return to Formula 1 and be competitive immediately.

“Obviously this has not been the case. The sport has changed immensely since the McLaren-Honda ‘glory days’. The current technology is much more sophisticated and it is tough to make a good racing car. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but perhaps we didn’t imagine that it would be this hard.

“It has been a really tough start to our Formula One return. We have had a lot of issues to contend with, not only during the first few race weekends, but also during pre-season testing.

“Thankfully most of those issues have now been overcome and we can start concentrating on moving forward. We are definitely feeling more positive about the second half of the season.”

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