The debut in the Netherlands
After the first aerodynamic updates of Aston Martin in Hungary, which had yielded some interesting results for the Silverstone team after a forgettable start to the season, the Dutch Grand Prix is awaited for what will be the new Honda power unit. The Japanese manufacturer will bring its ‘big engine’ to Zandvoort, which would allow the team to take the first steps forward after a championship that started well below expectations: “I can’t explain how much gap we can reduce with this update, but as I said in Formula 1 you have to be realistic – explained in a press conference Shintaro Orihara, Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer of Honda – we cannot make such a radical update, but we believe we have made good progress with this update. We have a certain gap from the competitors. In Hungary Aston Martin brought an important update, and on track every 15 or 100 milliseconds are crucial to improve our position. I believe our update can bring this kind of improvement in lap times.”
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The progress
The first tests, carried out in Budapest after the last Hungarian GP, also seem to have met Honda’s expectations, to Orihara’s satisfaction, who nevertheless highlighted the work that still needs to be done to further improve performance: “The test program is limited, but we can always get something from on-track tests. First of all, it is the first time we introduce a new engine with different specifications on the chassis, and then we confirm that the power works as expected on the new chassis. This is a positive point. Also, we found interesting data in terms of drivability. Then we bring this data back to our test bench, and optimize our settings for this weekend in the Netherlands. It was a good step forward for us. Another positive aspect is that we have completed the entire test program without any problems. We learned something about drivability. These are not positive data, but information we have collected. We made some changes and found significant differences in combustion characteristics, and drivability is influenced by these changes. So we need to optimize drivability with this engine. We will take the necessary time to improve drivability step by step. It is very important to see how the new power behaves in FP1 and receive interesting feedback from the drivers. Our weak point is, I believe, the engine power. So we focus on improving engine performance, improving engine performance and combustion characteristics and also distribution performance.”
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The plans to return to the top
Orihara, who expressed confidence after the absence of vibration-related problems (the same that had caused many issues in the first races of the world championship), then emphasized Honda’s growth project to increase its competitiveness in the coming years: “We have a development plan to improve our performance for 2027 and 2028. I’m not saying we will be immediately among the best in 2027, but we will make great strides. The important point is that it is part of our development plan. So, if we confirm on track that our direction is the right one, this will give us the necessary confidence. Therefore, it is very important for us how this engine performs in the Netherlands not only from a performance point of view, but also drivability. This will give us the certainty that our direction is the right one. We have a development plan for 2027 and 2028. But we can say that our goal for 2027 and 2028 is to gradually surpass the best competitors.”
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