I know I shouldnt but I just couldnt resist to copy his post
Congratulations to Ben Wood for his first F1 championship!
For those not in the know, Ben is the son of David Wood , longtime F1 engine designer, and longstanding friend of my family. Ben was formally Technical Director at Super Aguri, where his �250,000 a year budget, compared to the 100’s of millions spent at Honda, did not stop him turning the previous year’s honda dog into a honda beater with just a little common sense - only for him to find Honda turning his engines down.
When Ross joined, it was an opportunity to flag the flawed honda design faults, - which impressed Ross enough to give Ben the chance to design the 2009 car. Despite severe budget restrictions and a very late engine change the rest is history. Except that by march 2009 Ben was already focused solely on the 2010 car. He was recalled briefly end season to ‘review’ some of the directions the team were taking his design after Barcelona …
Anyway 2010 car is a much less compromised effort, and the prospect of a driver who can offer real feedback is much anticipated after last year!
As a footnote, some might like to know the honda 2008 engine was 70bhp behind the next worst engine [the Renault], so bad in fact honda japan had to beg the opposition in the form of Mario Ilien to come and work on the honda engine - he found 35bhp overnight, and left telling them where they the jap engineers, could find another 35 - serious egg on honda faces. So if anyone thinks it was just the money that caused honda to pull out,- or that honda CAN design engines - think again!!!
