'When I saw Honda struggling, I thought I could make an important contribution'

Honda have finally got it together in 2021. Since their return in 2015, Honda finally has an engine that Red Bull Racing can use to compete with for the title. According to Chris Wright, this is because of the perfect mentality in Japan.

Wright made the switch from Mercedes to Honda in 2016. The Brit previously worked as an engineer at Cosworth, became a Trackside Systems Engineer at Mercedes, but saw a unique opportunity at Honda in late 2015. There, after an initial stint as a Systems Engineer, he is now the Power Unit Engineer, working alongside Pierre Gasly.

Huge impression from Honda

''When I left Mercedes, Honda had just returned to F1, but still seemed unsure how to run their project. As I watched them struggle in 2015, I thought I could make a significant contribution at Honda. I started in 2016, and liked the most that I could move this project forward,'' Wright said in a note from Honda.

''When I started working, all my Japanese colleagues were very nice. They wanted to know everything about other manufacturers. Then I would look at the data and say, 'You know about X and Y, but Z is not enough yet, and it is needed at this level.'"

Structure of the F1 engine

''In reality, though, they knew what they were doing. The biggest problem was the power and reliability of the engine. The staff worked very hard on that, adapting extremely quickly. To be honest, I was surprised by how quickly this happened. That was a huge level compared to other teams,'' Wright said.

''I was also impressed how often and how big the updates were in a short period of time. On the other hand, I was under the impression that it did take them a long time to improve the structure of the engine. However, this point has now also progressed enormously compared to then, and changes are made very quickly,'' concludes Honda's Power Unit Engineer.