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FRIDAY PRACTICE PORTIMAO
A dramatic first day of practice at the Portuguese Grand Prix saw Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri both show pace but both have incidents. A new circuit offered up a new challenge to the drivers in Portugal, and it was clear they were all pushing to the limits with both Max and Daniil having spins when the track grip was low in FP1. Despite those moments - and Pierre needing to cut his running short due to an issue on the chassis side - we ended up with three of the four cars in the top ten, with Max third, Alex fifth and Pierre in tenth place. Daniil was 13th, just over a tenth slower than his team-mate. The first 30 minutes of FP2 were dedicated to Pirelli tyre testing, with prototype compounds being used by all the teams. This was a blind test, so both Red Bull and AlphaTauri simply had to follow the run plans given to them by Pirelli. In the final hour, we could work more on set-ups and the approach for the rest of the weekend, but Pierre was forced to stop on track as his car caught fire, leading to a red flag. We know the initial incident was caused by an electrical blackout on the car We are now carrying out out a full physical check on the PU itself. Shortly after running restarted, Max was caught in an incident with Lance Stroll at Turn 1 when the Racing Point turned in with Max on the inside. The stewards later decided no one driver was particularly to blame, so no further action was taken. The collision meant Max could not continue his low fuel run on soft tyres as the red flag was needed once again. Max still ended up second fastest behind Valtteri Bottas, but without having set a representative low fuel lap. Pierre was seventh and Alex tenth as again we had three cars in the top ten despite the disruption, while Daniil was another driver unable to do a clean qualifying simulation run and was 17th.
Setup
Round 13 and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sees F1 returning to Imola for the first time in 14 years. In 2006 we had Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button driving for the Honda Racing team. Back then, the race was called the San Marino Grand Prix and it saw Jenson start on the front row after an impressive Qualifying that put him P2. Much like the Brazilian Grand Prix, returning to Imola is an opportunity to pay respects and remember one of the true F1 greats, as it was here in the 1994 race that Ayrton Senna died, on a truly black weekend for the sport, as it also lost Simtek’s Roland Ratzenberger who was killed in qualifying the day before. For the third time this year, we’re heading for a home race alongside Scuderia AlphaTauri - the first of which saw Pierre stand on the top step - and we’ll be pushing once again for a strong weekend again for Honda power.
TOYOHARU TANABE
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, HONDA F1
After last weekend’s race in southern Portugal, we now head to Italy for the third time this season. The Imola circuit is very close to Faenza so it really is a home race for our colleagues at AlphaTauri. Imola has a long history as a Formula 1 venue, with the San Marino Grand Prix taking place there up until 2006 and I have many memories from there, from racing and also testing. This weekend, Formula 1 will trial the two day race weekend format for the first time, with just 90 minutes of free practice on Saturday morning, prior to qualifying in the afternoon and the race on Sunday. Combined with the fact that this will be our first event at Imola in the hybrid era, we can expect a very busy time over the two days. It also means that all our pre-race simulation work is very important and we will rely on that during the single free practice session, as we work on optimising our PU settings, also taking into account everything we have learned this year. Last Sunday, Max and Pierre got the most out of their respective Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri packages and we hope that this Sunday all four of our drivers can have a good race.
Better on Q2 than during a Race. Because during a race it's game overispano6 wrote: ↑31 Oct 2020, 17:03Good stuff. Max's spark plug issue in Q2 and the fact they rectified it so quickly was pretty impressive, but expected too.
https://twitter.com/HondaRacingF1/statu ... 2486656000
Just wondering, considering cost v DNf, how often do they change the spark plugs?Marti_EF3 wrote: ↑31 Oct 2020, 19:35Better on Q2 than during a Race. Because during a race it's game overispano6 wrote: ↑31 Oct 2020, 17:03Good stuff. Max's spark plug issue in Q2 and the fact they rectified it so quickly was pretty impressive, but expected too.
https://twitter.com/HondaRacingF1/statu ... 2486656000
Is this in reply to Tsunoda? And if so, are you being sarcastic or do you mean it? As Tsunoda is Honda backed and is certainly tied to that engine and is from that country. I hope you were being honoust and I too think Tsunoda is fast.PlatinumZealot wrote: ↑01 Nov 2020, 01:44This is also good for diversity in RedBull. Good medsage of equal opportunity. Dirvers are there on pure merit, not how much cash they bring or not becuse they are tied to an engine or not what country they are from. Very good example by RedBull.
Albon 