As a real anorak who didn’t miss watching a single GP from 1981 to 1994 (it wasn’t the same after Nelson retired, and it lost any charm for many years after Senna died), I saw the whole of the Honda rise.
They started developing their engine once F1 rules started to converge with sportscar technology. Renault, Ferrari and BMW had already shown that the turbo technology used in sportscars from the mid-70s could be adapted to F1, and so Honda wanted to try too. Their early engine had the same problems as many of the early turbos: very narrow power band, near vertical torque curve and very poor reliability (to paraphrase: the power arrived with a bang, and the engine often left with a bang). In 1984 the engine to have was the TAG-Porsche – not as powerful as the BMW but much more reliable. Keke Rosberg did most of the development driving and won the first two races for Honda. At that stage (up to the end of 1985) Honda was not considered to be the best engine on the grid by quite a way, but the arrival of Nelson Piquet at Williams in the winter of 85/86 led to major improvements from the test sessions (Piquet had done all the development work for BMW from 1982-1985 and was known to be the best test driver on the grid). By the start of the 1986 season, the TAG-Porsche engine was starting to get old (and no longer had Lauda to test it) and the BMW, although very powerful (1000bhp in qualifying trim) was also very fragile. The Renault engine was reliable but not very powerful and the Ferrari was unpredictable at best. Honda became the best engine manufacturer almost overnight (and would have taken both championships if Mansell had followed team orders at Brands Hatch). In 1987, with Senna (Lotus) joining Piquet the test team moved the engine on even further, making what was probably the best turbo engine ever to be built. The Williams-Hondas ran away with the world championship, and Senna dragged a dog of a Lotus up to 4th place – partly driver, partly engine. The class difference between Honda and the rest was best seen at Monza, where Piquet and Senna duelled at the front, leaving the rest of the field trailing.
By 1988, it was known that turbos would be definitively banned for the following season, but Honda simply ran two test teams, one for the 1988 turbo, one for the 1989 normally-aspirated engine. That McLaren-Hondas won 15/16 races was partly due to having Senna and Prost, partly down to a beautifully balanced car and partly due to having an engine which reached it’s peak after 5 years of development.
If you want stats, Honda turbos won:
9/16 races in 1986
11/16 races in 1987
15/16 races in 1988
It doesn’t get a lot more conclusive than that, especially as there were Renault, Ferrari, TAG-Porsche, BMW, Ford, Alfa Romeo (and Zakspeed and Minardi) to compete against…
It varied. To be honest during the turbo era it was the TAG/Porsche (McLaren) that was best though Honda (Williams) were just about equal. Have a look on here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Formula_One#The_rise_of_the_turbo has some stats and links to help.
As a real anorak who didn’t miss watching a single GP from 1981 to 1994 (it wasn’t the same after Nelson retired, and it lost any charm for many years after Senna died), I saw the whole of the Honda rise.
They started developing their engine once F1 rules started to converge with sportscar technology. Renault, Ferrari and BMW had already shown that the turbo technology used in sportscars from the mid-70s could be adapted to F1, and so Honda wanted to try too. Their early engine had the same problems as many of the early turbos: very narrow power band, near vertical torque curve and very poor reliability (to paraphrase: the power arrived with a bang, and the engine often left with a bang). In 1984 the engine to have was the TAG-Porsche – not as powerful as the BMW but much more reliable. Keke Rosberg did most of the development driving and won the first two races for Honda. At that stage (up to the end of 1985) Honda was not considered to be the best engine on the grid by quite a way, but the arrival of Nelson Piquet at Williams in the winter of 85/86 led to major improvements from the test sessions (Piquet had done all the development work for BMW from 1982-1985 and was known to be the best test driver on the grid). By the start of the 1986 season, the TAG-Porsche engine was starting to get old (and no longer had Lauda to test it) and the BMW, although very powerful (1000bhp in qualifying trim) was also very fragile. The Renault engine was reliable but not very powerful and the Ferrari was unpredictable at best. Honda became the best engine manufacturer almost overnight (and would have taken both championships if Mansell had followed team orders at Brands Hatch). In 1987, with Senna (Lotus) joining Piquet the test team moved the engine on even further, making what was probably the best turbo engine ever to be built. The Williams-Hondas ran away with the world championship, and Senna dragged a dog of a Lotus up to 4th place – partly driver, partly engine. The class difference between Honda and the rest was best seen at Monza, where Piquet and Senna duelled at the front, leaving the rest of the field trailing.
By 1988, it was known that turbos would be definitively banned for the following season, but Honda simply ran two test teams, one for the 1988 turbo, one for the 1989 normally-aspirated engine. That McLaren-Hondas won 15/16 races was partly due to having Senna and Prost, partly down to a beautifully balanced car and partly due to having an engine which reached it’s peak after 5 years of development.
If you want stats, Honda turbos won:
9/16 races in 1986
11/16 races in 1987
15/16 races in 1988
It doesn’t get a lot more conclusive than that, especially as there were Renault, Ferrari, TAG-Porsche, BMW, Ford, Alfa Romeo (and Zakspeed and Minardi) to compete against…