Honda must learn from 'bitter lesson'

Honda returned to Formula 1 in 2000 with British American Racing and this year took the decision to also supply the Jordan team with equal works engines. The marque set out to win at least one race in 2001, with a view to fight for the world championship next year.

However, the Japanese car giant's best results this year have been two third places by BAR's Jacques Villeneuve and while both Honda teams have been evenly matched, they have not been able to challenge Ferrari, Williams-BMW and McLaren-Mercedes on a regular basis.

Tanaka is optimistic about closing the gap to the top three, but believes the Honda engineers must learn from the difficulties of the last two years if they are to move forward.

"I hope we can make up the ground," Tanaka exclusively told this week's Autosport magazine. "Our engineers are working very hard to do that. We have been learning from the last two years and it has been a bitter lesson."

Honda has the difficulty of not working with a team that has experience of winning world championships, like McLaren or Williams, both of which have won titles using Honda power. However, Tanaka believes that powering a less established outfit to the title should provide more of a challenge.

"We entered in 2000 knowing that we had come to an agreement with BAR, the youngest team in F1," said Tanaka. "When Jordan came in, because of their link with Mugen [a Honda subsidiary which supplied engines to the team before 2000], we knew from the beginning who we were working with.

"So it is a new thing for us. It is a difficult challenge, that is true, but the truth coming from this reality is that we must work harder than any of the other top teams if we are to succeed."