How Dominate/Superior was the Honda engine in 1980s in F1 racing ??
As a real anorak who didn’t miss watching a single GP from 1981 to 1994 (it wasn’t the same after Nelson retired, and it lost any charm for many years after Senna died), I saw the whole of the Honda rise. They started developing their engine once F1 rules started to converge with sportscar technology. Renault, Ferrari and BMW had already shown that the turbo technology used in sportscars from the mid-70s could be adapted to F1, and so Honda wanted to try too. Their early engine had the same problems as many of the early turbos: very narrow power band, near vertical torque curve and very poor reliability (to paraphrase: the power arrived with a bang, and the engine often left with a bang). In 1984 the engine to have was the TAG-Porsche – not as powerful as the BMW but much more reliable. Keke Rosberg did most of the development driving and won the first two races for Honda. At that stage (up to the end of 1985) Honda was not considered to be the best engine on the grid by quite a way, b
