Improved Honda engine: what the Japanese are now focusing on

It had been clear since the start of the season that Honda needed to step up its game with the power unit. The Japanese team were able to tackle the mysterious vibrations, which had caused numerous problems for the Aston Martin team, after their home race at Suzuka, as the war-related cancellation of the races in the Middle East resulted in a forced one-month break.

However, the major update was a long time coming; it was only after the summer break that the Honda engineers managed to get the revised engines onto the track. And the race weekend at the Dünenkurs proved that there is still room for improvement. Honda’s chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, said that the focus was on improving the handling characteristics of the AMR26.

Although Fernando Alonso achieved the team’s best result of the season so far at Silverstone with a ninth-place finish, securing two vital World Championship points, the two-time champion also criticised the handling of his car and described it as a challenging weekend. “In terms of driveability, it was a difficult weekend.”

“We’re having problems again with downshifting and also with engine braking; in that respect, it wasn’t an easy weekend,” explained the 32-time Grand Prix winner, who went on to say: “We need to be a bit more patient. I don’t think this weekend has delivered the result we’d hoped for. We’re lacking in handling and the feel when changing gear. Everything we’d improved with the first engine, we’ve set back a bit with this second one. So we’ve still got about two or three races ahead of us to optimise it.”

Orihara emphasises: “Monza is a rather unique circuit in terms of the proportion of full-throttle sections, and on this track, how you manage the energy is crucial. That’s why the focus is on rideability. That’s exactly what we’ve been working on at the test bench at HRC in Sakura.”

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