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Honda's continuing struggle as engine partner to McLaren is likely to have been made worse by the departure of engine expert Gilles Simon, who had been working on the Japanese company's F1 project since 2013.
The Frenchman had gained a vast amount of experience during previous stints with the FIA, Renault and Ferrari, but Honda will now have to progress without him in what looks to be another tricky season. Neither Simon nor Honda have yet given an official reason for the split, which has come at a particularly bad time - McLaren found very little pace or reliability during the first pre-season test in Spain last week, apparently signalling no end to the problems from which Honda's engines have suffered since 2015.
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Yusuke Hasegawa, the boss of Honda's F1 project, has already admitted to being worried about these gremlins ahead of 2017, although McLaren's Racing Director Eric Boullier believes that the MCL32 chassis around the engine is a strong one to build on - whether this belief will be proved correct will depend on McLaren's performance in the second test, commencing this week.
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I find this very interesting as Honda traditionally do not encourage "outsiders" and if I recall correctly, it was Honda's chief engine designer that went to Ferrari and revived their power problems back in the '90's. Perhaps this Simon guy has been giving them a bum steer all along? (since 2013). Perhaps they should put a call in to Mario!