Dear Honda...

The Power of Dreams?

Dear Honda,

I respect you guys about as much as I respect any other car manufacturer that doesn't particularly pique my interest. I don't love your cars, but I certainly don't hate them either. My mother's Honda Civic lasted her fifteen years. Your cars are known for their reliability.

Which begs the question: what the heck is going on with your racing engines?

Now, I understand your early struggles. You re-entered Formula One in 2015, the second year of the V6 engine era. Mercedes, Ferrari, and Renault already had a year's worth of experience off of which to build. You showed slight improvement in 2016, but were still well off the pace, never making it onto the podium for the second straight season.

There's no excuse at this point though. McLaren make a good chassis. They have good drivers. As Fernando Alonso stated in March, there is "only one problem: that is the power unit."

And it's quite a big problem at the moment. So much so that Alonso basically said, "Forget it, the season's already lost so I'm gonna go run the Indy 500."

Now, it seems you guys create durable, strong engines over in IndyCar. At least, that's what you bragged about in 2010. But there were a few Honda engine issues in practice, so reliability was not a sure thing this month of May.

Alonso did quite well, running up front until about twenty laps to go when he dropped out because, what else, his Honda engine failed.

Come on. Really? Even in IndyCar, where you have far more recent experience than your Chevrolet counterparts, Alonso can't trust you guys?

I'm just going to keep this short and sweet, Honda: get your act together.

Alonso is a pure talent. Unfortunately, largely thanks to your engines, that talent is being wasted at the moment.

The Greatest Day in Racing

Last year's three winners: Lewis Hamilton, Alexander Rossi, Martin Truex Jr.
(Photo: NBCSN)

There are three days I look forward to every year more so than any others: Christmas, Easter, and the Sunday before Memorial Day.

Considering that's the day with the most prestigious Formula One race, the most prestigious IndyCar race, and (arguably) the second most prestigious NASCAR race, it makes sense that this is one of my favorite days on the calendar.

Say what you want about Monaco and the kind of racing it produces; I still love it. Strategy becomes that much more important considering how it's virtually impossible to pass. Indianapolis only gets better with age. The past few years have seen some incredible finishes, and I expect nothing different tomorrow. Charlotte, NASCAR's endurance race, will be a bit of an unknown this year. There's an extra stage around which teams must strategize, but with stage racing having provided so much excitement this season, I hope for more of the same in the 600.

So who will win? For Monaco, I'm going with Kimi Räikkönen. After snapping a streak of nearly nine seasons without a pole, assuming Räikkönen gets a good start and Ferrari don't mess up his strategy, look for him to win his first race since his return to the Scuderia in 2014. At Indianapolis, I'm going to be bold and pick Fernando Alonso. Why? Why not. He's got the speed, the team, and the talent. Don't be surprised if the two-time F1 World Champion is drinking the milk on Sunday afternoon. Finally, in Charlotte, I'm picking Kyle Busch. Joe Gibbs Racing is on a high after winning the All-Star Race, which Busch himself won. Look for him to pull off the Charlotte double.

Finally, look for much more frequent blog posts in the weeks to come. I've been quite busy with schoolwork this past month, but now I'm three exams away from finishing high school, so I'll have much more time on my hands for working on this blog.

Notes while I was gone

McLaren's latest Indy entry...until this year (Photo: McLaren)

It's been a while. I've been busy with schoolwork, other real life chores, and another blog for a trip to Mexico. A lot has happened since my last post, so I'll cover the highlights one by one.

Fernando Alonso is running the Indy 500. Sorry Nico Rosberg, your absence on the grid is no longer the biggest shocker of the season. Ironically, Alonso will be driving another McLaren-Honda. The team will get support from IndyCar powerhouse Andretti Autosport, however, so expect them to be competitive. If Manor F1 refugee Alexander Rossi can win the race as a rookie, who's to say a double world champion can't do the same?

On that note, Jenna Fryer owes Alonso a major apology for this column, entitled, "So What that Alonso is Racing in the Indy 500?" Well, Jenna, maybe it's because the F1 season for McLaren is lost, so what do they have to lose? Also, the reason he hasn't scored any points with McLaren this season has been because, well, to put it lightly, his car is terrible. Seriously, Alonso hasn't even finished a race yet! And do you really think Tony Stewart or Danica Patrick would have provided more buzz? Maybe in the States alone, sure, but now the whole world will be watching to see what Alonso to do. I have to give you props, though. When you make Mario Andretti livid, you've accomplished something.

Sauber look to be headed to Honda engines in 2018. That's cool for Honda, I guess, but I'm not so sure about Sauber. I'm sure there's some behind-the-scenes financial reasoning that makes this deal make sense, but McLaren have been so dreadful this year that their $40 million driver has decided to skip their biggest race of the year to go run, well, another biggest race of the year. I'm not convinced that McLaren chassis is all that great either, but Honda still has a lot of work to do as an engine supplier...

Finally, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is retiring after this season. It honestly makes sense, given his expiring contract, but also his health concerns the past few seasons. Personally, my early pick for his replacement is Alex Bowman, but I've been wrong before, so we'll see what Hendrick does.

Opinion: We Have a Title Fight on our Hands

The finger is back. (Photo: CNN)

I finally have some time to myself, so I'll go ahead and put in another post.

I live on the east coast of the United States, so the Australian Grand Prix went lights out at 1 AM my time. But come on, this was the first Formula One race in nearly four months. There was no way I was going to sleep through this one.

I went to bed around 8:00 and set an alarm for midnight, giving me a chance to watch F1 Countdown on NBCSN. Leigh Diffey, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett are better than ever. No wonder Sports Illustrated listed them among the honorable mentions for best broadcast team in 2015.

The race itself started off interesting enough, with Daniel Ricciardo's car getting stuck in sixth gear before the start. He would eventually recover to start the race two laps down, only to retire with similar issues after 25 laps.

But the story of the day was Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, who used pit strategy to their advantage to take the victory in the opening grand prix of the season. The Mercedes men of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished second and third respectively. Vettel, however, proved that this season may not be a walk in the park for Mercedes like they've been used to the past three years. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was voted Driver of the Day in a landslide.

(And yes, I went back to bed after F1 Extra and slept in until 8:00am. I actually got a full eight hours of sleep.)

I still want to be cautious with the belief that we could see a legitimate battle for the championship this season. (Keep in mind, Ferrari and Vettel have won early season races before.) But Vettel's pace matched Hamilton's when it mattered most, and a brilliant strategy by Ferrari won them one of the most thrilling races we've seen in a long time. Personally, I cannot wait for China!

Also, in other news, McLaren's Fernando Alonso has just announced his immediate retire...alright, you get the joke. Happy April 1st.

Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark

Photo: Motorsport.com

All Hamlet references aside, something is definitely rotten in Honda's 2017 power unit.

McLaren driver Fernando Alonso insists that McLaren's preseason testing struggles can be deduced solely from the team's Honda engines, which have struggled to keep pace with those of Mercedes, Ferrari, and Renault. When asked about McLaren's current situation, Alonso replied, "I don't think we are too far back in terms of chassis side. We have only one problem: that is the power unit. There is no reliability and there is no power. We are 30 km/h down on the straight, every straight."

Since their power unit switch from Mercedes to Honda in 2015, McLaren have struggled mightily and have yet to record a single podium with their new engine partner. While the team's performance has improved somewhat since the change, McLaren still are not the team that they once were.

One has to wonder if Alonso's patience is wearing thin. The double World Champion will be 36 this summer and is in the final year of his current contract with McLaren. While a bad year may not force him out of Formula One, it may force him into joining a new team if he wants a chance to win a third World Championship.

UPDATE: Well, here's further proof the situation is rotten: McLaren's troubles have left Honda 10,500 km behind Mercedes in terms of distance logged this preseason. Of course, Mercedes supplies engines for three constructors (Mercedes, Williams, Force India) while Honda only supplies for McLaren, but it's still a staggering number that represents just how much trouble Honda has endured so far.