2
Honda's technical director Toyoharu Tanabe admits that finding big gains on its power unit is becoming harder to do.
In 2019, the Japanese manufacturer scored ten podium finishes between Red Bull and Toro Rosso, including three victories, which all came at the hands of Max Verstappen.
It was the first year that Honda was in partnership with the senior Red Bull team, having originally supplied Toro Rosso in 2018 following a difficult three-year pairing with McLaren.
Honda has made steps to close in on the other engine manufacturers but admits that it is now struggling to make the large strides that it has done in recent years.
“We could show our improvement, our good positive progress this year, not only with Red Bull but also Toro Rosso,” Tanabe said to RACER.
“It was very nice for all the people working for this project and people in Honda. So I want to keep this momentum for next year. The development for next year has already started. And then we need to push more to achieve our goal.
“I think it’s harder than previous years. We need to be precise in every single area, in terms of hardware, also software and then trackside management as well.
"So, we keep pushing. The PU means the ICE, MGU-H and K, and all the systems, water and oil. Also tools, software, we have a lot of things to do. But a big step? Maybe that’s getting difficult.”
However, Tanabe highlighted that Honda is pleased with the progress it has made with the reliability of the power unit.
“We achieved no Sunday race failure to stop the car,” he said. “It was good for us. But we still have an area to improve. Also, we had some issues in practice. So we need to clean up everything from the race weekend.”
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
United Arab Emirates
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
128,738 comments on Honda
9 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Honda
Replies (2)
Login to replydenis1304
Posts: 284
Just made them reliable...
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
That is to be expected, however I fully trust them to squeeze a thing or two out of the PU for the coming season. There is no doubt work to be done on the package, but there were quite a few positives to pick from this season. Honda is keeping up the upgrade pace, and the power output on higher altitude tracks are my notables, along with mode 11 (which btw is my new slang for when I'm hurrying up at work!).