19/10/2017
NEWS STORY
Honda boss Yusuke Hasegawa believes that a number of personnel changes along with a restructuring is finally paying off.
Having gone back to the drawing board over the winter, now free of the dreaded token system which had compromised development in previous years, the Japanese manufacturer also made a number of changes in terms of staffing. Hasegawa insists that the recent improvement in reliability and form is a direct reflection of the changes.
"Reliability is much better," he told Autosport. "That is coming from the decision to modify our organisation at the beginning of the season.
"We had many issues," he admits, "so we added more engineers, we replaced some engineers and we modified the structure of the development area also. The improvement is also natural, because we started development ahead of the season and the performance gains are coming from eight months of work."
A reshuffle at the start of the year was followed by further changes in late April.
"We brought engineers into development from the mass production department," he reveals. "We knew it would not work as soon as they join and that it will take some time."
Referring to the recent improvement which saw McLaren claim points finishes in Singapore and Malaysia, he says: "We're racing with Williams, Haas and Renault. At some stages, we were quicker than them."
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