The Japanese Grand Prix saw a major Honda celebration at the Suzuka circuit. Many of the 1980’s McLaren-Honda cars were on display, along with the latest engine from Honda, the RA615H. It has been a year-long issue for McLaren, who have struggled for pace and reliability so far.
The engine was on display in the Suzuka paddock, for promotion reasons by Honda (yet to see why they have done this) along with some of the greatest Formula One cars to compete in the history of the sport.
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All of the engine details were exposed for viewing, and it was not just the public who found it interesting, rival engineers were handed details on a plate with the engine on show all day.
When looking at the engine, the first thing you note is the size of this engine, it’s very small. From Australia, the team used an oil/water cooler radiator mounted on top of the engine, this was ditched in order of a Ferrari style intercooler with the role hoop duct feeding it via pipes. This meant the team could shave several inches of the top of the bodywork, with a tighter engine cover.
Moving onto the Plenum, which house the new variable inlet trumpets to help improve fuel efficiency and power output from the engine. Before it was a Carbon Fibre concept, but this was ditched halfway through the season for a machined Billed aluminium one, which you can see.
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Behind the engine is where it gets interesting, just below the turbine you can note the turbine wastegate valves just above and below the exhaust tailpipe, which control gas flow into and out of the turbine. The size of them is quite small with lots of insulation covering the top of them as well as below.
The manifolds leading into and out of the turbine are wrapped. This helps with performance, as more heat and energy are going into the turbine for more power as well as to harvest.
Last year’s title winning Mercedes WO5 Haa a log style manifold and is also evident on the 2015 Honda RA615H engine too, the gas collector is also the same. Honda is the only one’s running the design, with the rest of the field having tubular concepts with lots of packaging.
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Above the MGU-K, you can note the water cooling pipes. The red will have water coming out which is hot, and the blue pipes will have water forced through to help to cool the engine. The water pump is mounted to the right-hand side of the MGU-K.
For the compressor, you can see it’s really hidden into the “V” of the engine where you can also note the oil cooling tank and inlet pipes.
Most of the electronics are high up and out of the way, or they are mounted close the ERS battery pack. This avoids any issue with overheating them from the turbine and engine heat.
A large percentage of Aluminium was used in the engine, the engine block, cylinder head and plenum are made from aluminium. It’s still unknown why Honda have done this.
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The air box was not on show in the photographs, but I can tell you it sits on top of the turbine’s compressor and is a big, bulky one made from carbon fibre. Air will enter through the role hoop, down the air box and into the plenum for the air filter to clean. This will them be used with Petrol for combustion.
Finally, the MGU-H is mounted on a central shaft, which goes right through the centre of the engine, this approach was widely used throughout the 2014 Formula One season, as its simple and very effective.
Overall the engine is quite small but does pack a punch. It’s a question of when the team will be ready to win races.
