Revitalised Honda expecting strong push forward this year

Honda Racing Team JAS spent the winter renewing their, their team structure in addition to their driver line-up in order to mount the challenge to the all-conquering Citroëns for 2016. We talk to team principal Alessandro Mariani, new driver Rob Huff and outgoing driver Gabriele Tarquini about the team’s new approach this season.

With just two works Citroën C-Elysée WTCCs on track this year with the French manufacturer retiring from the championship at the end of the year, the 2016 season offers much opportunity to Honda to develop. Besides the addition of Volvo with their two S60s, one of the major talking points in the paddock is Honda’s ambitions, as the Japanese manufacturer is eager to challenge Citroën for the title in their fourth season in the WTCC.

The most visible changes for 2016 are within the driver line-up, with Norbert Michelisz joining the team as they expand to three cars, and with former champion Rob Huff replacing Gabriele Tarquini. Behind the scenes, however, new staff moves, such as hiring Huff’s former race engineer Duncan Laycock from RML as technical director, as well as a new approach to race weekends and test sessions mean that we can expect to see a renewed competitiveness from Honda.

“We want to improve compared to last year, we want to be in a position to fight against Citroën and try to win the championship,” said JAS Motorsport team principal Alessandro Mariani to TouringCarTimes. “We can also come second or third because you can’t predict motorsport, there can be a failure, an accident or whatever, but we don’t want to be spectators of a Citroën dominance, that’s for sure.”

Mariani is absolutely sure Honda have reduced the gap and waits for the first race in France to see where Honda are compared to the French squad.

“If we finish where we were last year I’ll be very disappointed. Last year the car was not as good as this year. We will surely do better; the question is by how much. I would rate it as a failure if we had the same results as last year. We have seen the positives of the changes right away, having a lot of experience I have realised that the approach has completely changed, testing or internal communication are already different.
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Gabriele Tarquini, who has left the team to join Lada Sport, is in a position to assess Honda’s goals for the year from the outside looking in. The Italian feels that the line-up changes are not enough, and JAS will need to work hard on the car to be a strong challenger this season.

“The car needs to be improved. I think changing a driver is not enough because we were not the problem,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes. “There was an enormous difference between Citroën and Honda [last year]. Obviously when you have a goal you want to try and achieve it and one of the ways to do it is changing the people involved in the project. JAS have also acquired new technicians and engineers, so there will be a solid basis but a lot of work to do.”

Tarquini has no doubts Honda will have to beat the competition, and anything else should be considered a defeat: “They want to beat Citroën and that is why they changed. If they stay where they were last year, it will be an unsuccessful season. Obviously when you make changes it means you are trying to improve. We will see where they are at the end of the season.”

2012 champion Rob Huff, who has replaced Tarquini at Honda, thinks the team will need time to gel together, and the results of their work will only show in the second half of the season.

“There has been a lot of changes in the team, but they will take time to show,” admitted the Brit. “We can say that the changes in the team have only happened in the last five or six weeks, and the updates we have now were designed and made by the ‘old’ team members from five or six months ago, stuff that Gabriele was very much involved in.”

Huff seems more cautious than team boss Mariani, but does not deny the goal is definitely to beat the French cars.

“It’s difficult to say we’ll be disappointed if we don’t match Citroën, because it takes time for the new engineers and drivers to gel together and show the improvements, so I think this season will be in two halves, in which the first half will have the ‘old’ things coming up and then the second in which we show the real work of the refreshed team. As a driver, as always, I want to be consistent, fight for wins, podiums, pole positions and finish the highest the Honda has ever finished in the championship. If we succeed in that we will have done a good job.”

Honda are surely under pressure to deliver, especially after all the work that has gone into the project as well as the new elements of the team joining. With three top drivers in Tiago Monteiro, Norbert Michelisz and former champion Rob Huff, it might just be the right time to stop playing catch-up and match Citroën’s pace, which would surely be good for the sake of the championship as well.

With the Japanese people at Honda carefully watching what is going on and JAS eager to get confirmation from the manufacturer for a longer commitment to the project, the first few races will be crucial.

Meanwhile, all we can hope for is that Honda are able to be a consistent challenger to Citroën to deliver a great show while Volvo gets up to speed, and fight for more than just a handful of victories this time round.