Honda makes new engine announcement after Spanish GP

Honda has progressed with the driveability of its B-spec engine to the stage that its focus can now switch to performance.

That is the breakthrough confirmed by Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara following the Spanish Grand Prix.

Honda now focused on B-spec engine performance

Honda introduced its upgraded engine at the Dutch Grand Prix. Bolted into the Aston Martin AMR26s, Fernando Alonso proceeded to secure P9 at Zandvoort, the best result of the Aston Martin-Honda alliance so far.

As anticipated, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza was a struggle for Aston Martin-Honda, due to the circuit’s extreme emphasis on power.

The first Madring-hosted Spanish Grand Prix was also a challenging outing. Alonso finished P17, two laps down, while Lance Stroll was forced to retire from the race with a brake pedal issue.

Lance Stroll had carried a 40-place grid penalty into qualifying after Aston Martin opted for an engine change. He failed to set a time in qualifying, his AMR26 having suffered a suspected water pressure issue, though he was declared “eligible to start the race” by the FIA stewards.

While the Spanish GP result fell below Honda’s expectations, a major silver lining was confirmed.

Upon the introduction of Honda’s B-spec engine, Alonso sounded the alarm over its driveability, claiming that it was back to square one on that front.

Honda’s Orihara issued a positive update after the Spanish GP, as the Japanese manufacturer now progresses to tackling outright performance.

“Today’s result isn’t what we wanted, but we need to look at the learnings and improvement points that we can take forward to future races,” said Orihara via Honda’s social media channels.

“Over the past three races we’ve improved the driveability of our spec 2 power unit, which was introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix. By reducing the driveability issue, we can now focus on the performance side.

“This weekend, for example, we changed some calibrations to improve this aspect and session-by-session we saw some good signs in the data. This shows us all that we are working in the right direction.”

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Next up is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which marks a return to a power-hungry circuit in the form of Baku. In particular, that monster 2.2 km main straight.

Alonso was asked how painful that race could be for Aston Martin and Honda.

“We need to go weekend by weekend,” he told PlanetF1.com and others after the Spanish GP. “If we have any possibility to score points like Zandvoort, we have to take it. But we know that it’s going to be difficult.

“But we need to keep learning. Even today, it was nothing to fight for, but we tried different things, different engine settings, and deployment strategy in the last few laps to keep the learning process, and it’s what we need to do in the rest of the season.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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