Whither Honda ?

The F1 season is 4 races old now, and for me the biggest surprise has been the performance of Honda F1 team.

I know Jenson has qualified really well in all the races and Honda supporters may well point to a spate of bad luck events hindering their chances, but the fact remains that Honda have nothing to show for their efforts.

This has to be viewed in the perspective of the winter testing times. Honda racked up millions of miles with little reliability problems, and it seemed before the start of the season that Renault and Honda would be the teams to really look ahead to. Jenson's first win was almost taken for granted ! And with one of the seemingly best driver pairings on the grid of Rubens and Jense, Honda threatened to take the battle to Renault for championships.

Four races on, Honda have suffered many engine failures - the most spectacular being the one at Oz, with Jenson's engine collapsing on the last lap. Ironically, the team asked him to pull over and forfeit the points finish so they could get a fresh engine without penalty at Imola. And guess where Jenson finished at Imola ? 7th.

The car seems to be lacking pace over the race distance too, and this was never so dramatically evident as at Oz GP, when Button slipped gradually throughout the race from pole to 5th or so by the end of the race. Rubens has had trouble with braking, and in general, his form has looked a shadow of his (admittedly overshadowed) form at Ferrari.

Honda need to get more out of their car to be able to challenge the Renaults and even Ferrari. And soon - otherwise this could be a long difficult season for Honda.