STR13 | Reliability
The previous reliability issues of Honda’s power unit are no secret, thanks to 13 DNF’s, 2 DNS’s and 393 engine related grid place penalties for the two McLaren boys in 2017. To add to Honda’s headache, Fernando Alonso suffered 7 of those DNF’s and he wasn’t afraid to shout about it. ‘I have never raced with less power in my life,’ Alonso claimed at one race. ‘There is no reliability and there is no power. We are 30km/h down on the straight, every straight,’ he said during another Grand Prix. Therefore, reliability was a key focus area for Honda moving forward.
‘From the beginning of this project our goal was clear, the concept would carry over from 2017 but we placed an emphasis on the reliability areas,’ explained Toyoharu Tanabe, Honda R&D Europe F1 Technical Director. ‘Of course we did not ignore performance, but the major focus was on reliability. We needed that for both the team, the drivers and ourselves at Honda.’
The 2018 regulations also drove this emphasis on reliability as the number of power unit elements for this season decreased compared to 2017. Last year, the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), Turbocharger (TC), MGU-H, MGU-K, Energy Store (ES) and Control Electronics (CE) elements were limited to 4 for the entire season, so for a 20 race-strong calendar each element had to last 5 races. This year however, these limitations have drastically changed and teams are only allowed three ICE’s, TC’s and MGU-H’s, which means these elements have to last up to 7 race weekends (for a 21 race-strong calendar). While the MGU-K, ES and CE are limited to 2 and so need to endure up to 10 races. This would be an astonishing engineering feat if a driver could achieve this, however at the halfway point of the 2018 season, 6 drivers have already met or exceeded their power unit allocation.
With the MGU-H causing the majority of issues in 2017, this was one of the main areas that Honda developed. ‘One of the biggest issues we had was with the MGU-H, so we did a lot of work there,’ highlights Tanabe. ‘It’s a very complex part with a high level of technology, with the individual components and interaction between them it is a tricky thing. Due to its function and its role it is subjected to high temperatures and vibrations. It also has a very high RPM and that means that you have to look at things like the shape of the blades in the turbine and compressor, so it’s far from easy. You know it’s really a huge amount of work to get that right and we are still working on it.’
Improving reliability can either be done by increasing the stiffness and strength of a part through adding material, which of course adds weight, or changing the design concept. The latter was not an option for Honda, and so this year’s RA618H was slightly heavier than the RA617H raced last year.
