No, it doesn't. Honda is not back to help F1 or to be its saviour. It's there because it sees a business opportunity thanks to the use of V6 (which fits their business model). When they signed to get back to F1, they knew the rules and they agreed to them. To me, the fact that they argued so much to get the tokens shows that they are likely to be behind the curve or they at least have worries about the competitivity of their PU.
I am just tired of FIA constantly re-writing the rules or not plugging these loopholes. BTW, I was on Mercedes' side re: the loophole - I was against in-season development; that should have never happened but it did - and it shouldn't make any difference to Honda who is in its 1st year in the V6 program and therefore adhere to same (strict) rules Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault adhered to in 2014.
This is the only post I'm going to make on the matter because I know all too well that your opinions can't be swayed. The pre-existing big three are exploiting a lazy-loophole the FIA neglected to tie up, it would have given them an even larger competitive advantage than they already had over Honda. Oh, and don't give me "oh but Honda can take McLaren's year of Mercedes dat-" No. Honda were always going to be at a disadvantage, even if they'd been working on their PU for five years. This doesn't make things unfair, it's makes them fair.
If the FIA hadn't given Honda the fair leniency it has, they'd be at an extra disadvantage next year when instead of being allowed 32 tokens, they'd be allowed 20-something instead. On top of already being forced to run one less engine than their competitors during the same point of life of the engine.
As much as I back the cost-cutting measures, it doesn't matter whether those 32 tokens are spent in-season or during the 2015 winter. That money would end up being spent anyway, it makes far more sense to allow a modicum of development freedom for the teams in a sport where such a thing is beyond rare; especially when the current regulations are still in their infancy.
By all means be harsh on the FIA for their usual regulatory flip-flopping, but don't give them shit for one of the few decisions that is correct in terms of both competitive fairness, and the good of the sport.
100% true, except the rules suddenly changed when Ferrari pointed out the loophole. So no, they didn't know what they were signing up to.
Yup. Just like when HRT, Marussia, and Caterham all signed up and started F1 operations under the assumption a budget cap would be implemented. At least in Honda's instance, the sport has made the fair concession.
