Honda reveals ‘dedicated preparation’ for Monaco challenge Aston Martin faces
Fernando Alonso has accepted Aston Martin's current position, but Honda is working hard to do its bit in the team's turnaround.
Honda chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, has said the power unit manufacturer has undertaken “dedicated preparation” to match the unique demands of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso admitted Aston Martin is likely to run towards the back of the field until at least after the summer break, predicting anothe six races to navigate before meaningful improvements can be made – with Honda’s power unit a key piece in that puzzle.
Honda targets Monaco power unit optimisation with Aston Martin
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The Monaco Grand Prix is a one-off in Formula 1 in many ways, not least as it’s almost a century old, it stands alone as the only race to not run to the mandated 305km distance, and its 3.2km layout sits below the stated minimum circuit length as per the FIA regulations.
With the whole grid often in close proximity, Orihara acknowledged the Japanese marque needs to locate the right kind of power unit cooling capabilities for the weekend ahead.
As such, Honda has undertaken work at Aston Martin‘s factory ahead of the event to look to find the correct solutions, citing free practice as a vital time of the weekend to iron out any issues.
“Circuit de Monaco is very unique, and our power units require dedicated preparation to adapt to the conditions,” Orihara said.
“We have conducted specific driver-in-loop (DiL) sessions at the AMR Technology Campus to optimise our energy management setting.
“On the cooling side, Monaco’s slow speed sections make this challenging. We need to find a good cooling specification, working closely with Aston Martin Aramco to achieve this for the power unit in clean air and heavy traffic, which is common here.
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“This weekend we have three hours of practice so it’s critical to optimise energy management and track usage throughout these. Gaining the drivers’ feedback during this will also be paramount as energy management has a significant impact on driveability.
“Monaco has a lot of slow speed corners, so it’s fundamental to maximise driveability to give them maximum confidence. We can find lap time from driveability here.”
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