Formula One engine compression ratio issue is "close to fair but still gray area," says Yasuaki Asaki. "Honda must read the rivals' moves and schemes." (3ページ目)

【Mercedes really knows what they're doing】

As an engineer myself, I have to admire Mercedes. When I heard the news about the compression ratio this time, I thought, "Well, the Germans―or rather Mercedes―really know what they're doing."

Exploiting the grey areas, the ambiguous areas of the regulations―that's Formula 1. During my active career, I was always thinking about new ideas. It's like a game of outsmarting fellow engineers, or rather, always having the mindset that if it's not written in the regulations, you can do it.

It's not the law, so if it's not explicitly forbidden, you can do it. When I was in charge of PU development at Honda, I often told my team members something like this.

"If it were a law set by the government, grey would be foul. But F1 regulations are set by the promoters. They're ultimately just rules to make the show more exciting, prevent one team from dominating, and ensure a fair competition. Violating the regulations doesn't land you in jail. Engineers in the F1 world develop under the mindset that grey is fair. We have to figure out how to compete within that."

So what Mercedes did is perfectly reasonable, right? If it were a grey area leaning toward black, there might be cause for complaint. But if they developed a technology that increases the compression ratio only during high-temperature operation and reverts to within regulation limits during cold-temperature inspections, there's no basis for criticism. That's the nature of F1 competition.

It is said that Mercedes gained about 15 horsepower over its rivals with this idea. That translates to an advantage of about 0.2 seconds per lap. How will the other teams counter this?

Honda, which is partnering with Aston Martin, has excellent system engineers and is strong in-house battery development capabilities. It should be able to gain time in the electric portion, and if Adrian Newey, who is working on machine development, can regain even a tenth of a second in aerodynamic performance, then, depending on Honda's internal combustion engine performance, I think they can compete.

What will happen when the Grand Prix starts? I think that will be a major highlight of the early part of the season.