McLaren-Honda: Yasuhisa Arai hopes to challenge Mercedes at the end of the season

The start of the season had been full of promise for McLaren and Honda, who admitted to hoping to reach a very good level of competitiveness by the opening of the European season. Unfortunately, the Barcelona Grand Prix was very disappointing, to the point that Jenson Button doubted he could score points in 2015.

However, Ron Dennis and Yasuhisa Arai keep the flame of optimism alive at Woking. The Japanese manager showed great ambition to Autosport: « Unfortunately, the Spanish Grand Prix was an unexpected situation. We believed we could score points, but unfortunately, we had [brake] problems with Fernando’s car. However, maybe in Monaco and Canada, we will have much better chances of collecting points, and then, towards the middle of the season, finishing a race on the podium – that is our hope ».

Williams and Ferrari could therefore be joined by McLaren-Honda in 2015 – at least that’s the opinion of Yasuhisa Arai. But he sees even further and hopes to compete with Mercedes: By the end of the season, we want to reach that point. It’s our goal, our objective. I firmly believe and say: we can achieve the success of 1988 [between McLaren and Honda]. You will see next season, maybe in one season, we can do it. We have a magnificent history between McLaren and Honda. I feel a lot of pressure on me.

The optimism of the Japanese official is based on an aggressive engine development. « I have already prepared a plan to add elements, changes, and evolutions race by race. There were significant improvements between the pre-season tests in Jerez and the Barcelona Grand Prix, really a big change. This required considerable efforts regarding power or engine characteristics. It’s almost a new engine. » Honda might even use its remaining nine tokens at the next Austrian Grand Prix on June 21.