Before the Mexican Grand Prix, the Japanese manufacturer Honda had already acknowledged that the conditions at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, located 2,286 meters above sea level, would be a considerable challenge. Concerns were especially focused on turbo lag, a problem that had already occurred in Singapore, in addition to reliability issues.
The situation complicated during qualifying, when Fernando Alonso had to retire his vehicle despite showing good pace. During the race, both he and Lance Stroll were forced to abandon after just five laps due to ‘abnormal pressure levels in the PU systems,’ as the team reported.
In a press conference prior to the São Paulo Grand Prix, Honda’s engineering chief, Shintaro Orihara, explained that the behavior of the engine was unexpected in the high-altitude conditions. This anomaly caused excessive stress on the ERS cooling system and failures in the MGU-K during qualifying and the race.
According to Orihara, the Honda team has been working on corrective measures, both in hardware and software, to improve reliability under these adverse conditions for the upcoming competition.
Mike Krack, chief track engineer at Aston Martin, admitted that they intended to discuss various strategies before the race, although they felt it would be difficult to finish with both cars. ‘One must be realistic and analyze the options we have in the race. Despite the limitations, there were possible strategies, but we quickly understood that they would not be sufficient,’ said Krack, referring to the few minutes they remained on track.
Despite the setbacks in Mexico, Honda hopes that the new solutions can improve performance at the Brazilian Grand Prix. However, the main objective is to apply the lessons learned from this weekend to develop a more robust power unit for the next season.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_9cb99337847d620ff9b4ad23bc6d9cda8e083eb7