New optimism for McLaren

McLaren will enter the 2017 Formula One World Championship with renewed optimism for the new season.

McLaren made the bold decision to drop, Mercedes and their dominant power-unit in a bid to partner with another manufacturer in a bid to compete and beat the German car supplier.

During the final two seasons of the pairing with Mercedes, McLaren failed to win a Grand Prix, but did stand on the podium on a couple of occasions and scored regular points.

But in 2015, McLaren paired up with Japanese car manufacturer Honda, a company that has enjoyed great success with McLaren in the past.

To-date, its a fair assessment that it hasn’t worked.

McLaren’s best finish with a Honda power-unit is fifth, a position they have finished in three times, despite boasting two Formula One World Champions in Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

The power-unit has lacked pace and reliability and has been harshly criticised by Alonso, much to the probably embarrassment of Honda.

But will things change for 2017?

Honda have completed a technical overhaul and have completely restructured engine for the new season to go along with the new aerodynamic changes and tyre changes in the new regulations.

?Let?s be clear, we?re looking at some huge regulatory changes ahead of the 2017 season. We?ve had bigger changes in the past ? the change between 1982 and ?83 from ground-effect to flat floors, for example, which had a massive impact on performance. But this season?s changes rank as some of the most significant we?ve ever had in the sport.

?That?s likely to change the competition order ? because it?s such a big disturbance. Historically, that has changed the order ? but then what normally happens is that the best, and most well-equipped, teams tend to rise to the top again. McLaren-Honda?s technical director Tim Goss told mclaren.com.

In regards to Honda he added: ?The token system that was applied to engine development for the past few seasons has been discontinued. For 2017, the Honda engine architecture and layout have been altered to serve both for performance and packaging needs.

‘The new power unit takes much of the learning from the past two seasons, but has been specifically redesigned for this season.?