The words of Shintaro Orihara, head of Honda engineers
Lance Stroll last, 15 laps behind winner George Russell, and Fernando Alonso retired on the 21st lap after having already returned to the pits after 14 laps, only to return to the track a few laps later. From one point of view, the result of the Australian GP for Aston Martin can be judged better than expected; on the other hand, hearing talk of “GP completed without reliability issues” is quite jarring, especially because reaching the finish line, but 15 laps late, is something that has very little to do with F1.
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In any case, these were the words of Honda’s head of engineers Shintaro Orihara at the end of the race held at the Melbourne circuit: “In Melbourne, we took another step in the right direction. We could see that the countermeasures adopted for our power unit worked in race conditions, as we completed the Grand Prix without reliability issues. If you compare our position in Bahrain with the current one, the improvement has been significant. This weekend was extremely important for us to verify the reliability of the battery. After the tests in Bahrain, Aston Martin and Honda worked closely together to find a solution to the battery vibration problems. As a single team, we worked tirelessly to find and implement these countermeasures. From our data, we can see that the battery vibrations have continued to decrease, and we are now confident that we are on the right track to complete the full race distance. From this point of view, we are on the right path and must maintain this momentum. Every lap we manage to complete is fundamental for collecting data on our PU, so the hard work and maximum commitment will continue in the future.”
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“Next week in China, we are confident that we can increase the battery mileage – he added – we will focus on completing laps and collecting data to improve our performance and optimize energy management.”
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