The new Honda engine
The weekend of the Dutch Grand Prix marked the debut of the new Honda power unit Spec 2, which together with the latest updates brought by Aston Martin was supposed to contribute to an improvement in the British team’s performance. On paper, judging by Fernando Alonso’s single result, 9th at the end of a race in which the Spaniard gave his best, progress has been made, but judging by the comments of the driver himself and teammate Lance Stroll, these were not enough.
Read more Alonso’s masterpiece at Zandvoort: “It’s fantastic to finish in the points zone, I didn’t expect it”
What is missing?
Both, in fact, encountered drivability problems throughout the weekend. The Japanese manufacturer is already working to solve these obstacles, but at the end of the last weekend it also highlighted another aspect, this time more positive. This was done by Shintaro Orihara, Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer of Honda:
Orihara’s words
“First of all, both new Spec 2 engines worked without significant reliability issues during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend. We know we can improve drivability and this remains fundamental for the upcoming races. The two points earned are a good result, especially considering the workload required to introduce the Spec 2 engine this weekend. In the final stages of the race, we focused on maintaining the gap from Gasly and optimized our energy management strategy to achieve this. It is a good result and we will continue to focus on future improvements.”
Read more Hülkenberg: the thrill of the near contact with Bortoleto in eighth place
