Honda F1 Engine Expected to Fire Up for the First Time This Fall

HondaHondaJapan, 1948 > present102 models
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has opened its F1 engine development center in Milton Keynes, England, and plans to have its engine ready to start by this fall. Engine development work is also being done in Tochigi, Japan.

Yasuhisa Arai has been appointed as leader of the F1 project. He is also the head of the Honda Research Institute.

The internal combustion portion of the engine will be ready in the fall, but the energy recovery portion will not be complete until next year. Honda is rumored to be using an HPD ARX-03cHonda HPD ARX 03aJapan, 2012 > present2 photos
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as a test mule until McLarenMcLarenUnited Kingdom, 1963 > present92 models
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is ready with a chassis to test the engine.

"We are scheduled to have a fire-up around autumn. Of course, in addition to the engine unit, we are going to have components like the ERS and the battery, so in order for us to test it as a system it is probably going to take another year or so.

"We made the announcement in the middle of May that Honda has decided to come back to F1 and we have just started the design work. We are now making the decisions for some of the details, so we have just started to embark on this," said Arai.

Honda will return as an engine manufacturer in F1 for the first time in six seasons as an engine partner with McLaren for 2015.

Source: Autosport