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Wolff: Honda will emerge as strong F1 force

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has no doubts that Honda will make a success of its Formula 1 return, despite the Japanese manufacturer's disappointing time last year. Honda endured a troubled return to F1 in 2015 as it struggled with reliability and a lack of power from its new turbo V6 hybrid engine. But having made gains over the campaign, and a significant revamp of key elements of its power unit over the winter, Wolff thinks that Honda is on course to deliver. "Honda is a huge organization with lots of resource, and they were the power unit with the most impressive development curve through 2015," Wolff said in an interview with his Mercedes team's YouTube channel. "Even if it was a very difficult year for them, it was still very good what they achieved in terms of how they progressed through the season. I have no doubt they will be a strong competitive in the future." Wolff's comments come despite Mercedes engine chief Andy Cowell saying last week that he was not convinced that Honda's 'size zero' concept was the right approach for the current regulations. Manor step As well as predicting good things for Honda in the future, Wolff has predicted promising results for the Mercedes-powered Manor team in 2016. "Manor will make a big step up and not only because of the engine," said Wolff, who helped secure a drive at the Banbury-based team for Mercedes junior driver Pascal Wehrlein. "There is a good bunch of people coming together: impressive individuals, with the right budget and right attitude, and Pascal in the car. "I have confidence that the car and driver will have highlights and be a solid midfield runner." This article by Jonathan Noble originally appeared on Motorsport.com, the world's leader in auto racing news, photos and video. Related Video:

Race Recap: Abu Dhabi GP is reversals, luck, leanness and last dances

We weren't sure if Alter Ego Nico Rosberg, the one who flew into Brazil and showed Mercedes AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton that he knew also knew how to grab an entire race weekend by the scruff of the neck, arrived in Abu Dhabi. In both Friday practice sessions Hamilton showed Rosberg the way. Then on Saturday, Alter Ego Rosberg took over, taking the last Free Practice session and then pole position by a whopping four-tenths of a second over Hamilton. Thanks to the gimmicky and soon-to-be-obliterated spectre of double points, if Rosberg won the race and Hamilton finished lower than second, the World Championship would remain in German hands. Behind Hamilton came the Williams duo, again, with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Felipe Massa. Daniil Kvyat did swell to put his Toro Rosso in fifth, Jenson Button was just as swell getting his McLaren into sixth. Kimi Raikkonen outqualified his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso for the third time this year, the pair taking seventh and eighth on the grid. Kevin Magnussen lined the second McLaren up in ninth, Jean-Eric Vergne making the top ten for Toro Rosso in his last race for the team. To be clear, that was the final grid for race: Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel had both qualified in the top ten but were sent to the back of the grid when their Infiniti Red Bull Racing front wings were deemed illegal. They'd start from the pit lane, which was still ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, who took so many penalties for new engine components that he started the race in Turkey. At lights-out on Sunday, well, it was pretty much lights out. That's when Hamilton got the start of the year, bolting off the line so quickly it didn't take him 100 meters to get in front of Rosberg. The Brit took Turn 1 in the lead, then laid more than a second into the German on the first lap. Rosberg kept close, about 2.5 seconds back, but it was Hamilton's race to lose and everyone knew it; barring a reliability issue or the kind of driving mistake Hamilton hasn't made all year, Britain would have its fourth double world champion. Rosberg was left asking his engineer what kind of strategy they might use to claim first place. That reliability issue did come, but it struck Rosberg on Lap 26 when his entire Energy Recovery System failed, robbing him of 160 horsepower and taxing his brakes.

What livery would you choose for your McLaren P1 GTR?

What sort of livery would you choose for your McLaren P1 GTR? Given that McLaren will only build 35 of them, each priced at nearly $3 million and almost all of them already built by now, it's a choice few of us will ever have to make. But to give us an idea of the answers arrived at by those who have, the British constructor has provided a rare glimpse inside the McLaren P1 GTR Workshop. Located at the company's headquarters in Woking, next to the McLaren GT racing department and the McLaren Special Operations studio, the workshop is charged with looking after those examples of the P1 GTR that their owners have opted to leave in the factory's care. McLaren will bring the cars to specially organized track days and tend to them in between by a crack team of hand-selected technicians and engineers. McLaren's chief designer helps each customer choose how they want their GTR spec'd out. Pictured above are twelve of those examples. There's one in the throwback yellow and green Harrods livery in which the model was launched, one with a similar treatment in deep blue with a yellow stripe, another reminiscent of the F1 GTR's iconic FINA livery, one in a light blue camo made up of racing circuit layouts, a couple in varying shades of McLaren's signature orange, and a handful inspired by the outfit's more recent grand prix racing liveries – including one that looks just like the concept from Monterey. Of course, each P1 GTR is mechanically identical, with their 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 hybrid powertrains tuned to deliver 986 horsepower, unburdened by excess weight, and with aggressive aero. The first seven took part in the first track session at Catalunya in Spain this past October, and they will forever wear a special badge to boast as such. But there'll be more to come this year, including one at Silverstone, another at Spa, a trip to Abu Dhabi, and another to Austin right here in America. Aside from shipping the cars themselves, the staff at the workshop put together 80 metric tons of support equipment for each session. Related Video: