Lance Stroll’s blunt ‘not nearly enough’ verdict on Honda upgrade
Lance Stroll says Honda's upgrade is 'not enough'
ZANDVOORT – Lance Stroll says Honda’s upgraded power unit is “not nearly enough” of a step forward, with Aston Martin suffering a double Q1 elimination in qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Following on from the introduction of the B-spec AMR26 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Honda brought its revised power unit to the track in Zandvoort.
Lance Stroll says Honda power unit still needs major improvement
The power unit did not deliver the much-anticipated gains.
Fernando Alonso was the slowest driver in Sprint qualifying after going off the track on his first flying lap.
He reported that the engine was “pushing under braking”, which made it “difficult to stop the car”.
Stroll’s exit in 19th place completed a double SQ1 elimination for Aston Martin.
The teammates were again eliminated in Q1 for the Grand Prix, where they qualified 18th and 19th, with Alonso ahead of Stroll.
But while Alonso felt the double elimination hid Honda’s improvement, Stroll says it is not enough of a step forward.
“Not so much, I think,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media in Zandvoort. “Maybe a bit, but not nearly enough.
“On the chassis side, I think we’re quite good. We made a big step in Budapest.
“The drivability and the power is the next thing we need to really work on.”
Stroll said the drivability of the Honda power unit has “a lot” of issues.
“Not good, not good,” he said when asked about that. “It’s a lottery.
“Right now, we’re just not getting the consistent engine braking, going into the corner and a lot of rejected downshifts. So, yeah, a lot of issues.”
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Honda’s trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara says the Japanese manufacturer is working to resolve the drivability problems.
“Today we ran the Sprint race and qualifying without any reliability issues with the new spec engine,” he said.
“We have received similar feedback from both Aston Martin drivers after these sessions.
“Together, with our engineers’ assessments, and our work on the test bench at HRC Sakura overnight and after the Sprint race, we have seen some improvements to get better control over the internal combustion engine (ICE) and to further improve the consistency of the combustion behaviour in qualifying.
“We need to ensure that the engine does what the driver needs at the right time. We have taken some steps today, but there is still more to be done to give the drivers the confidence they need.
“This is our primary focus for the short and medium term.”
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