Wind tunnel woes at Honda

By Phil Huff
April 25 2007

Along with every other commentator, including RealHondaF1.com, Rubens Barrichello seems certain that it's Honda's new wind tunnel in Brackley that's the cause of the teams problems this year - but also the solution.

"In order for you to understand what is happening, I need to say that the car has improved a lot in the wind tunnel, but this improvement still hasn't taken place on the track," explains Rubens on his own website.

"The problem with the car is that it has an aerodynamic drag, which means that it does not go fast on the straight and there is no stability when I step on the brakes.

"We have two hypotheses: either the tunnel is not producing the correct results or when the parts are produced they do not come out right."

The commissioning of Honda Racing F1's wind tunnel, opened back in July 2006 in a blaze of publicity, and three months ahead of schedule, was led by Graham Miller who, like team chief Nick Fry, has a background in corporate management. Then Senior Aerodynamicist Willem Toet swiftly left the team, citing serious differences with the management team, and going so far as to send an angry email to Nick Fry saying "I will not be abused."

With the very public loss of Geoff Willis, an aerodynamics specialist, just a month after the tunnel opened, the team then also lost Simon Lacey, his departure hastily organised just days after Willis' removal.

The suspicion must be that there's simply not enough talent left within the team able to work with the tools provided. Mariano Alperin-Bruvera, appointed as Chief Aerodynamicist just as the wind tunnel was nearing completion, remains, and is certainly talented, but there's appears to be a lack of depth of talent within the team that's been getting gradually worse during the development of RA107.

We also hear that there will be more staff leaving Brackley, of their own accord, in the not too distant future, and that's clearly not going to aid development.

Rubens sums it up nicely. "There is no doubt that we are going through a bad phase," he says, mastering the art of understatement. "It is a hardworking period and there is no point in wasting energy with unimportant things," he continues.

"What we need right now is a solution."