If there weren’t already enough parallels between what happened to Honda from 2015 onward and what is happening to it now, one more has just been added to the list. Mercedes has publicly offered to help Honda, through Toto Wolff, its top executive. As they did in 2017, Mercedes wants to rescue Honda.
That said, Toto Wolff imposes one condition to support a rescue for Honda: that no other engine manufacturer may improve. The head of Mercedes believes that the other three engine makers are close enough to prevent them from resorting to the ADUO rules, which allow evolving the power unit with extra advantages.
Mercedes believes that neither Ferrari, Red Bull, nor Audi deserve the ADUO rules
“There is an engine manufacturer that has a problem and we have to help him”. This is the phrase Toto Wolff used to refer to Honda, and it carries more meaning than it might seem if we recall what happened in the past when Honda ran into the technical regulations for the hybrid engines back in 2015.
At that time, Mercedes ended up helping Honda, literally. When the Japanese unveiled their second engine in 2017, based on what they believed Mercedes possessed and the result was a disaster even more calamitous than the previous one, Mercedes itself rolled up its sleeves to help Honda understand those power units.
Ironically, the outcome of all that was that Honda ended up dethroning Mercedes in the last year of the technical regulation, in that iconic 2021 season when Max Verstappen defeated Lewis Hamilton. Despite this, Mercedes is willing to help Honda again, but with one condition: that no one else improves.
“Everyone except Honda is more or less on an equal footing, so I’d be disappointed if they allowed them into the ADUO,” Wolff declared. And indeed, rumors already say that besides Honda, Ferrari and Audi will also receive regulatory help to improve their engines. Red Bull, by contrast, would stay as it is.
“The ADUO were designed to help lagging teams, not as a launchpad”, recalls Toto Wolff, who sees Mercedes currently holding an advantage and fears it might not last if their rivals can improve faster than them. “Our analyses indicate that the rivals, except for Honda, have performance very similar to ours,” he concludes.
We will see whether Honda ends up receiving help from Mercedes a decade later. History sometimes seems destined to repeat itself.
Images | Honda, Mercedes
