This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Prospecting for Gold Honda Prepare Quietly

Prospecting for Gold

With the New Year, and the return of testing, 2002 is set to be another interesting year in Formula One.

During the off season, things have been relatively muted. The tight financial climate has not been conducive to picking up sponsorship, and with many companies reporting 40 percent slashed off marketing budgets, bluster is doing little to close deals.

That said, there's still plenty of it going around. Judging by what's been said so far, the early indications are that most of the grid will finish third in 2002. Williams will fight McLaren for second, but McLaren are going to challenge Ferrari, who would already have been ceded the Championship otherwise.

In fact, all signs indicate this could be a pretty good season. Ferrari are almost certainly going to have an even better car than last year, which is a daunting challenge for any team to face up to. But then again, BMW are looking to improve the best engine from 2001, whilst Williams are evolving their very competitive chassis in an attempt to match it. McLaren have come off a tough year, with reliability troubles plaguing their challenge, but again are expecting to make a good step for next year. Given the delays in putting the new Paragon centre together, the formula for consistency is still incomplete, but there's always the expectation to challenge for wins when the car goes the distance.

All this was predictable from the close of play last season: Williams and Michelin coming on strong, whilst McLaren looked good whenever their fragility permitted it. However, there are others who stand a real chance of upsetting the apple cart - if rarely - next year.

BAR have worked out what was wrong with last year's car, and Honda are working hard to improve their offering. They have made ill advised performance promises in the past, but following the appointment of Dave Richards, things are expected to pick up by the end of the season, even if they haven't quite yet. And of course, there's their partners in engine supplier, Jordan, who are again determined to better their rival. Not to mention return to winning ways - they know the Honda engine supply will dry up unless they deliver results soon.

Then again, there's Patrick Head's tip for the coming year - Renault. Last year's car was, frankly, an embarrassment to the outgoing Benetton team: they had an engine which did not really live up to promises at the start of the year, but then again, it was matched by the equally distressing chassis. However, through the season, Renault sorted out their problems, and the engine improved. Benetton worked out most of the problems with the chassis, and again, moved forwards. The news for next year is, according to the people putting the car together, anyway, that the 2002 car should start around a second quicker still - which puts it somewhere near Williams 2001 performance.

Honda Prepare Quietly

At the start of the off season, rumours circulated concerning Honda's plans for 2002, and their goals for the new engine. At the time, they were contradictory, apparently part of a move to confuse any genuine leakage that might make it out: supplying two teams with works engines is not a good way to keep secrets.

As the testing ban lifts, there is a much better idea of what the manufacturer is planning for the year ahead.

The new unit follows the trend for wider Vs, less mass, higher revs and good efficiency. The return of traction control makes inherent smoothness less important: the fuel delivery control compensates for spikes in the power curve. However, the challenge of reducing mass whilst increasing power means that something else, clearly, has to be sacrificed, and in this case, it's tolerance. BMW's approach of building engines that last a single race, and no more, has been taken on board. As, of course, has their reliability.

Now, as things stand, Honda know they can't make up all the deficit from tightened tolerances: BMW put together a top class package, and the power they are getting is not just from quality of their engineering - that engine peaked at 20,000 rpm. Honda's fuel delivery is good, but at those revs, flame propagation in the cylinder is just not quick enough to get efficient burn, and the power levels drop. In order to match the accepted end of the season estimate for BMW's output of 860bhp through tolerance alone, Honda's projected engine would not even manage a qualifying session.

All is not lost, however. The new engine has a 90 degree V, weighs in nearly five kilos less than last year's, and offers the same efficiency. On the dyno, it shows 840bhp over a racing distance, with excellent torque - a vital factor for acceleration. Furthermore, the engine is designed with the new engine management requirements in mind, building in a route for Honda to improve fuel efficiency, largely at the expense of torque, in the mechanics, rather than just in the software.

Even as the engine comes on line for testing, its future is assured if the planned research works out according projections. Following the development plans, this engine should offer over 840bhp for Australia, potentially 850bhp for Malaysia, and rising to 860bhp by the French Grand Prix. Things get a bit hazy after that: depending on what's working, and what isn't, things are flexible; regardless, the goal is to be over 875bhp for the Japanese Grand Prix.

All of which is, of course, excellent news for Jordan and BAR. They can expect to start the season roughly on a par with Sauber (whose Ferrari engine comes in around the same mark), and move ahead by midyear. The only downside is, Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari are all expected to hold at least a 10bhp advantage all year.