As the new era of Formula 1 approaches, Honda has confessed it realized the magnitude of its internal problems during January. Shintaro Orihara, track manager and chief engineer of the company, acknowledged that during the car setup in Barcelona, the teams did not show competitive performance either in terms of reliability or speed.
Expectations were high for Aston Martin, which has a modern factory in Silverstone, legendary designer Adrian Newey, and collaboration with Honda. However, the start of the season has been more complicated than expected, with a noticeable performance deficit, especially compared to the incoming Cadillac.
After some updates to the AMR26 model, Honda’s problems have not been short of difficulties, with troublesome vibrations for the drivers and other deficiencies in engine power. Orihara explained in an exclusive interview how, despite having a good outlook at the end of the previous year, the situation drastically changed in January.
“Probably at the end of last year, our position wasn’t that bad,” he said. “But in January we realized there were ups and downs in performance affecting reliability.” This forced Honda to prioritize reliability over performance improvements.
Furthermore, problems with the battery have further complicated the situation, costing valuable time during winter testing and hindering the gathering of necessary data to address the performance deficit.
Orihara also commented on the complexity of the new regulations, which have caused significant changes in various engine components, both in the electric power unit and in the internal combustion engine. The decrease in engine power is one of the main points to improve, and the update planned for Zandvoort aims to address this deficit.
In this new season, Honda understands that regaining competitiveness will take a significant amount of time, with the goal of making firm strides to improve its performance in the upcoming races.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
