F1: Willis demotion blamed for Honda`s decline

[Rory Phoulorie]

Shuhei Nakamoto's appointment as Senior Technical Director has been pinpointed as the cause of Honda's shocking performance at the season-opening Australian GP.

Both of the team's cars were hampered by a crippling lack of grip around Albert Park, with team principal Nick Fry acknowledging afterwards that "we have an aerodynamic problem."

While Fry continues to speak bullishly about the team rectifying their flaws to be "up there with Renault and BMW by the start of the European season", turnarounds on such a scale are a rare occurrence in F1. Moreover, team personnel reportedly have lost confidence in the ability of their Japanese Technical Director to deliver a competitive car.

'We have it on good authority that an increasing number of Honda techies now firmly believe it was a mistake to replace Geoff Willis with Shuhei Nakamoto as technical director last July [it was actually in June]. It was, after all, the developments instigated by Willis - not Nakamoto - that resulted in Jenson Button outscoring every other driver in the last six races of 2006,' claims F1 Racing Magazine.

Although Honda predicted a slow start to the season in Australia, they had not expected to be so far adrift of the lead runners. While the Brackley-based outfit had realised since the advent of winter testing that they would be out-paced by the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, it hadn't contemplated being outpaced by Super Aguri - who were, of course, using the Willis-inspired RA106 to embarrass their 'A' team in Melbourne.

Nakamoto has not gone on record to explain why the R107 was so uncompetitive - Engineering Director Jacky Eeckelaert was the sole technical voice to speak on the team's press releases from Australia - while Willis has not yet returned to F1 since walking out on the team a day after he was demoted to focus on 'aerodynamic development'.

Honda refused to appoint a replacement for Willis following his exit, appointing Mariano Alperin-Bruvera to head the aerodynamics group using the team's new wind tunnel, and the upshot appears to have been a major malfunction with the aerodynamic construction of this year's charger.

To compound matters, Fry's pledge that the team would "work flat-out [in the wind tunnel] to find a fix" may only expand their shortcomings. ITV reporter Ted Kravitz quoted one unnamed Technical Director in his post-Australian GP report musing whether the tunnel had been 'incorrectly calibrated when it was rushed into service last year, as he found it inconceivable that a team of professional aerodynamicists could do such a bad job.'

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2012410,00.html

[Rory Phoulorie]

Somehow, I am missing something. To have a decline, you should have had a high point. Somebody point out to me Honda's high point in F1 as a constructor because I cannot find one.