by Paul Bailey
Honda’s return to Formula One and the revival of their iconic partnership with McLaren has captured the imagination of racing fans the world over. Some of the greatest races, the most astounding qualifying laps, the fiercest rivalries and the most bitter controversies are all bound up in the last McLaren-Honda era.
Historic McLaren-Honda dominance
From 1988-1991 the partnership yielded four consecutive Constructors Championships and three World Championships for Brazilian Ayrton Senna. His team mate Alain Prost also captured a Drivers title in this incredible run of success and over a remarkable four-year period the McLaren-Honda dominance was complete.
Central to this success was the genius of the late Ayrton Senna. Ruthless yet charming, driven by success and with an almost maniacal commitment on the track, he proved the perfect foil for Honda’s highly focussed engineers.
Mr Soichiro Honda himself was a huge fan of Senna. For Soichiro once said ‘without racing there is no Honda’ and he recognised a kindred spirit in Senna, whose devotion to his sport was total and his desire to win all-consuming. ‘You either commit yourself as a professional racing driver that’s designed to win races or you come second or you come third or fifth,’ he once said. ‘I am not designed to come third, fourth or fifth – I race to win.’
Senna racing at the Europe Grand Prix
Racing instinct
It would be trite to describe Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda’s new driver signing (he will drive alongside another former World Champion, Jenson Button), as ‘the new Ayrton Senna’ but many parallels can be drawn between their abilities: The force of will to drive a car way beyond its natural limits, the instinctive wheel-to-wheel racing ability, the respect from their fellow drivers and, above all, a focus on getting the maximum from every situation.
Spaniard Alonso is already a two-time World Champion and is widely considered the best driver in F1. In recent years at Ferrari he’s flattered a pretty uncompetitive package and pushed Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel very hard despite a vastly inferior car, finishing second in the championship in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Now he’s looking for a new challenge and more World Championships with McLaren-Honda.
A long and successful partnership
Alonso’s future had seemed uncertain towards the end of the 2014 racing season when he decided to leave Ferrari with no obvious destination. However, in his own mind he knew where he wanted to be. ‘I have had in-depth discussions with all the senior people at both McLaren and Honda,’ explains Alonso.
Alonso described Senna as ‘my favourite driver’
‘I have viewed their fantastic facilities in both the UK and Japan, and it is clear to me that, together, McLaren and Honda are in the process of beginning what is sure to be a long and successful partnership. And I intend to give 100% effort to help make it exactly that.’
Senna’s influence
For Alonso, like so many, Senna was and remains an inspiration. ‘I have never hidden my deep admiration for Ayrton Senna: my favourite driver, my idol on track, my reference. I still remember as a kid, the posters in my wardrobe, my toy cars in which I dreamed I would one day emulate Ayrton.’
He continues: ‘The kart that my father built for my older sister that I ended up falling in love with. That kart had the livery of one of the most legendary partnerships in the history of Formula One… McLaren-Honda – the car that Ayrton drove, the same partnership to which I am now honoured to join to take part in the next Formula One world championship.’
His contemporaries, rivals and former champions of the sport place Alonso at its very pinnacle. ‘There are 22 Grand Prix drivers, maybe six of them are really good, three exceptional, but there is only one genius,’ says F1 legend and former three-time champion Jackie Stewart of Alonso.
Many parallels have been drawn between the abilities of Senna and Alonso
A winning combination
Michael Schumacher, the most successful driver of any era, named Alonso as the best driver in the sport in 2012: ‘There are sometimes phases where everything comes to one… and he has it,’ he said. Others are more succinct. ‘Alonso is a genius,’ says current F1 driver Pastor Maldonado and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff recently described him as ‘a real racing monster who can achieve everything.’
Formula One is an incredibly complex sport and Honda isn’t complacent enough to expect immediate victories and World Championships to land at their feet. However, like Alonso and Senna before him, Honda doesn’t go racing to finish second.
With the technical brilliance of the McLaren team and the most talented driver on the planet, the omens are good for a strong return season and the first race on 15th March 2015 in Melbourne can’t come soon enough. The Dream team is back.
