Honda will bring its Spec 4 power unit for F1 Belgium GP but only for Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.
The Japanese manufacturer will bring Spec 4 power unit in F1 Belgium GP, but only for Albon and Kvyat in a strategic move, which they say has not been affected by the swap between Albon and Pierre Gasly.
The two drivers will incur grid penalties though. The update is focused on improvement in both reliability and performance. Ever since Honda introduced Spec 3 pre summer break, this was evident to happen.
“With the summer break over, we now head into the second half of the season, starting with a pair of back-to-back races, the final two rounds in Europe, first in Belgium and then Italy,” said Toyoharu Tanabe.
“Our performance gradually improved over the races immediately prior to the break and both our teams were competitive. We aim to carry that momentum forward into the next part of the season achieving further improvements.
“Spa is one of the classic tracks, the longest on the calendar at just over 7 kilometres, set in a beautiful forest location. One of its most interesting aspects from a PU point of view is the very long run from the Source hairpin to Les Combes going through Eau Rouge in between.
“We are introducing the Spec 4 version of our PU at this event. As usual, we have focused on improving both reliability and performance, in the hope of achieving even better results with both teams in this part of the season.
“Our plan is that only Albon and Kvyat will run it at Spa, for strategic reasons, looking at the rest of the season as a whole. The driver swap between Albon and Gasly has no effect on how we operate at the race, and we continue to do our best to support all four of our drivers.
“As per the Sporting Regulations, Albon now takes on what was Gasly’s PU usage in terms of all the components that make up the PU and vice versa.” The Japanese manufacturer could bring more specs in the future.