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.

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.

Yes, Drivers are Athletes

Photo: Motorsport.com

Checked in to Motorsport.com this evening to see if anything new had turned up. It had, in the form of further confirmation of a claim that somehow gets refuted time after time (cough...Donavan McNabb...cough).

Formula One's 2017 cars will be stronger and faster than ever, which has led Renault's Jolyon Palmer to believe physical fitness will be more important to drivers than ever next season: "If it is what we think, then I think it will show early on who has been in the gym over the winter and who hasn't. If drivers aren't in the gym this winter they will be found out."

Drivers need to go to the gym because they need to be fit to do their job well. To me, it sounds like something Captain Obvious would say in a Hotels.com commercial. I don't think it's any coincidence that Jimmie Johnson and Michael Schumacher, two of the fittest drivers ever in their respective racing divisions, both have seven championships. If you try to argue auto racing isn't a sport (I mean, it is called motorsport, but what the hey), I'll usually let it slide. Take it out on the drivers by saying they're not athletes and I'll destroy all your arguments and bury you into the ground.

So there you have it. For the umpteenth time, racing drivers are athletes. If you're still unconvinced, click here for further scientific confirmation.