Honda Tag

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana – A far cry from Wednesday’s Chevrolet domination, Honda found themselves at the top of the speed charts during Thursday practice for the 101st Indianapolis 500 with an unfamiliar face at the top. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’s Jay Howard turned a lap of 226.744 mph, the fastest of the month on his ninth lap of the day around the 2.5 mile oval. However, Thursday was not without its problems. Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden became the first major victim of wallRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief In less than 24 hours, two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso will officially begin his journey towards the 101 Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on May 28. The 35-year-old Spaniard is set for his first test on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. ET on the 2.5-mile superspeedway, and will run until 5 p.m. ET. With an abysmal this year in F1, Alonso, McLaren boss Zak Brown and Honda came together with Andretti Autosport for a unique situation in which the 32-timeRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Sauber and Honda have finally confirmed the longstanding rumor that the Swiss team will switch from Ferrari power units to Honda for 2018. It appears the team will also use McLaren gearboxes which is the surest sign yet that McLaren will also stick by Honda instead of jumping ship back to Mercedes as some had speculated. Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn gave the following statement about the deal. “It is a great honor for the Sauber F1 Team to be able to work together with Honda inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso will race in the 2017 Indianapolis 500, driving a McLaren-branded Honda-powered entry run by defending champions Andretti Autosport. The 35-year-old Spaniard cited multiple reasons for wanting to race at Indianapolis in a statement issued by McLaren-Honda this morning. Among them, his desire to emulate the late Graham Hill and become just the second driver to complete the Triple Crown of Motor racing. “I’ve won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, and it’s one of my ambitions to win theRead More

By Takuma Sato, Driver Columnist In his second column for Motorsports Tribune, Takuma Sato discusses some of the improvements made by Honda and Andretti Autosport as they prepare for the Grand Prix of Long Beach, and reveals some of the small rigors of what he did over the three-week break between races. Constantly Improving I’m really excited to return to Long Beach. To be honest, with no change in the aero package from last year to this year, we knew we were coming into an uphill battle on road and streetRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor McLaren has made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2017, mostly due to their incredibly unreliable Honda supplied power units. The team did somewhat casually reach out to Mercedes about supplying them for the future, but for the time being they are under contract with Honda and are forced to make lemonade from lemons. The best long term strategy, one I have written about several times, would be for them to invest funds from McLaren automotive, their successful road car operation, into creating their ownRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Honda are aiming to bring an updated engine with increased power levels McLaren, with some positive gains made on the reliability front. Fernando Alonso ran a relatively trouble free day on Friday, finishing 12th in the second practice for the Australian Grand Prix. McLaren looked obviously down on horsepower to their competitors, but Honda revealed that work is being done to ensure a better power unit is in the plans, with the aim to bring is before June. Teams are set at moving to their secondRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief A relationship rekindled in 2015 saw strong potential last season with Honda and McLaren. The Woking-based team finished the year sixth in points, with two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso scoring as high as fifth twice en route to 10th in the driver’s championship. Jenson Button finished as high as sixth in Austria, but a lack of consistent pace relegated him to 15th overall. A wild offseason sees Button take a leave away from the sport for 2017 and he is set to be replaced byRead More

By Takuma Sato, Driver Columnist In his opening column for Motorsports Tribune, Takuma Sato discusses his Andretti Autosport debut in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and brings everyone up to speed with how he went from Formula 1 to competing in the Indianapolis 500. Debuting for Andretti Autosport It has been so exciting from the moment I joined the team. It was a long winter and off-season, but a lot of things have happened. However, from the IndyCar regulations to the time that I signed up to driveRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – Ryan Hunter-Reay did not have the ideal start to his Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend, but finishing fourth was way more than he could’ve expected to start the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season. “We had so much going on this weekend with the brake issues that we had in practice session two, where we lost most of the time there, then I tapped the wall in qualifying which threw qualifying out the window and then thisRead More