Honda have accused Spain’s Marca of false reporting after supposed comments from engineer Ryo Mukomoto claimed their power unit won’t be capable of race wins until 2017.
Whilst the engine manufacturer is well off the pace and recently admitted its weakness is a horsepower deficit to its rivals, their hopes took a further hit when Mukomoto commented that they can rule race wins out this and next year.
“No,” he replied when asked. “And next year [wins] will also be difficult. For a new team it is difficult to win its first race when others have worked more time together. In 2016 we will try to win a race, but there are no guarantees in the world of motorsport.”
However when Honda were contacted by Pitpass, the Japanese company responded and quickly denied Mukomoto ever made the comments, claiming Marca fabricated them.
“Honda was surprised to see an article on a supposedly reputable Spanish website regarding the young engineer Mr Mukomoto speaking about our Formula 1 project.
“Mr Mukomoto has not worked on our Formula 1 project, nor has he done an interview with the website concerned, or with any other international media.”
Honda’s spokesperson reported that both the company and Mukomoto have received hate mail as a result of the false comments.
“The quotes that have been erroneously attributed to him are inaccurate, and we regard it as a shame that our engineer has been incorrectly exposed in this way. Moreover, both he and Honda have received angry fan mail, which is regrettable and unfair.”
