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- Honda celebrates the “double forty” at Goodwood
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| Honda celebrates the “double forty” at Goodwood |
| Domination with McLaren Having ended its relationship with Williams at the end of 1987, Honda joined forces with McLaren as well as remaining with Lotus for 1988. The first ever McLaren-Honda – the MP4/4 – was an innovative machine and the new combination’s dominance was total. An almost perfect record established the MP4/4 as the most successful car in F1 history.
Between them, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna won 15 of 16 rounds with the Brazilian finally clinching his first world title after a heroic season-long duel with his French team-mate. The McLaren-Honda team broke many records during the final season of the turbocharged era, scoring an unprecedented 199 points and recording no fewer than ten 1-2 finishes. To meet the new-for-1989, 3.5-litre normally aspirated engine regulations, Honda designed a brand new RA109A V10 engine for reigning champions McLaren. Only Renault and Honda opted for the novel 10-cylinder configuration though others were soon to follow suit. McLaren prepared a new MP4/5 chassis and the formidable duo of Senna and Prost were once again contracted to drive.
Despite the challenging new regulations, McLaren-Honda’s winning ways continued – the team won 10 of 16 races with Prost taking the title. For the third consecutive year, Honda claimed both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships. Not wanting to sit on its laurels, Honda’s renowned engineers incorporated many innovations into a new RA100E engine for 1990. With Prost leaving for Ferrari, Gerhard Berger lined up alongside Senna in a pair of revised MP4/5B chassis. Although Ferrari mounted a serious attack, the result was another successful campaign for Honda which saw Senna reclaim the Drivers’ Championship and Honda take its fifth Constructors’ Championship on the trot. Honda’s constant search for areas of possible improvement based on rigorous assessment of its own achievements and comparisons of its performance with that of its closest rivals, led the company to design a new V12 engine for McLaren in 1991. An upgraded version of the championship winning V10 would be provided to Tyrrell. Badged RA121E, the new V12 propelled McLaren’s latest MP4/6 to victory in the year’s first four Grands Prix. In total Senna scored seven wins on the way to his third Drivers’ Championship with Honda in four years. With Berger winning in Japan , Honda clinched the Constructors’ Championship for the sixth successive season. A major update of the RA121E engine was introduced for McLaren in 1992 but by now Williams had gained a major competitive edge through the introduction of active suspension, coupled with a semi-automatic gearbox and other computer-controlled features. Honda responded by increasing power but despite Senna winning three races and Berger two – including the season finale in Australia – for the first time since 1987 the World Championship would not be won by Honda power. Long before the title had been lost, Honda’s management had already taken the major decision that 1992 was to be the last year of Honda's second period of participation in Grand Prix racing. Berger’s victory in Australia was the company’s 71st win in the last race of Honda’s second F1 adventure. |
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