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Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
All four Honda-powered cars finished Friday practice in the top ten at the Spanish Grand Prix and gathered plenty of data ahead of what looks set to be another hard-fought weekend.
Toyoharu Tanabe
Honda Racing F1
This was a straightforward first day of practice, with everything going smoothly across both teams and all four drivers. It’s only Friday, but all the same, looking at the times and the gaps it is clear that, once again this weekend, the battle with their direct rivals will be very close for both our teams. Therefore a small time gap can make a big difference in the race. We will therefore be studying our data, both from the past at this track and from today, looking at the smallest detail in order to optimise our settings to be in the best possible shape for qualifying tomorrow.
A word from the four drivers ................
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https://honda.racing/f1/post/race-setup_monacoHonda F1 Return To Monaco
mc Circuit de Monaco
This weekend Formula 1 returns to the streets of Monaco, having been absent from the reorganised 2020 schedule. Sunday will not only see Honda powered cars take on 78 laps of the 3.3km track, but also another return to the grandstands for the fans.
Home to some of the most famous racing corners and locations in the world, the prestigious Monte-Carlo circuit challenges drivers as they tackle the iconic Swimming Pool and battle it out around the glamorous Casino Square.
The last running of the Monaco Grand Prix in 2019 saw Max Verstappen cross the line in P2, however having been dealt a time penalty in the race after contact with Bottas in the pits, he was demoted back to P4. The team's last top-three finish here came in 2004, with Jenson Button claiming a P2 finish. This weekend we'll be aiming to take home more silverware, as the battle between the Bulls and Silver Arrows continues on into round 5.
Pierre had a solid P5 finish here in 2019, which we're sure will give the young Frenchman confidence around one of his favourite circuits on the calendar. Whilst Yuki has never driven here, we're confident he will get up to speed quickly and we will be working with him to help get as much performance as possible from his car's package.
Toyoharu Tanabe
Honda Racing F1
This weekend sees Formula 1 return to the historic Monaco venue for the first time since 2019, as last year’s event was cancelled because of the pandemic. The narrow roads of this street circuit with plenty of low speed corners, combined with its glamorous location mean that it is a very special event on the Formula 1 calendar. From a Honda perspective, we can look back at many memorable moments and fantastic wins here. It is said that the circuit characteristics mean that driver ability counts for a bigger part of the result than at other tracks. Therefore on the Power Unit side, we have worked on ensuring that we can provide good driveability and throttle response to match the drivers’ inputs. To do this we have studied past data, as well as each of our four drivers’ individual styles to ensure that all of them can have a strong weekend. Both our teams have demonstrated they have a good performance level and we hope that they can confirm that in Monaco, making a step forward in terms of results.
A few words from the four drivers: ................
Toyoharu Tanabe
Honda Racing F1
The first day of practice for the Monaco Grand Prix went smoothly on the PU front. It has been two years since we raced here and we have a new PU this year, therefore part of our work today centred on basic function checks and making changes to the PU settings, as we gathered plenty of useful data. It’s only the first day, but it’s not a bad result to have all four cars in the top ten in FP1 and three of them in FP2. However, as we have seen at every race so far this year, we can expect very tough competition for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, Tsunoda hit the guardrail in the afternoon, losing precious track time as the car had to be repaired, which is not ideal, given that he has never raced here before in any category. However, along with ourselves and the team, there is plenty of time for him to study all the data carefully and try and recover on Saturday, when we will tackle what is the most important qualifying session of the year, given the difficulty of overtaking here.
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A few words from the four drivers: ................
https://honda.racing/f1/post/sunday-monacoMasashi Yamamoto
Honda Racing F1
We are delighted to have won the Monaco Grand Prix, one of the most important and historic races on the calendar and part of the motor racing “triple crown.” The last time Honda won here was in 1992 with Ayrton Senna and I am sure this first win here for Max Verstappen is very special for him. Red Bull Racing Honda is now leading both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, however this is only the fifth race in a long season. So now we will do our best to maintain this position race by race and we hope Honda fans around the world will enjoy supporting us in our fight to be world champions again.
Toyoharu Tanabe
Honda Racing F1
It’s fantastic that Honda has claimed its first win at Monaco since Ayrton Senna took the victory back in 1992. We are delighted to have this very special and historic race at a track where we have won several times in the past. There is more reason to celebrate as this is Max Verstappen’s first win here and indeed his first podium. Having no one in front of him on the grid certainly helped a bit, but this win was down to his driving, the Red Bull Racing chassis and our PU, with all three of these elements functioning perfectly. Sergio Perez also produced a strong performance so that his driving and an excellent team strategy allowed him to move up from ninth on the grid to fourth at the end, bringing home a good number of points for the team’s championship challenge. For Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda, Pierre Gasly had to deal with having Hamilton behind him for the whole race but he never lost concentration to finish sixth. As for Yuki Tsunoda, he was always going to have a difficult afternoon, starting so far back on the grid, but it was impressive that he completed almost 70 laps on his Hard tyres, before putting in some very quick lap times in clean air after his tyre stop and I’m sure he learned a lot. With Red Bull Racing, we are now leading both championships, but there are many races still to come and we must continue working to improve.
Max Verstappen 33
Red Bull Racing Honda
I’m super happy to win the Monaco Grand Prix. It’s such a tricky track and you need a smooth weekend so I’m very pleased with what we have achieved as a Team and of course with Honda. I just had to focus on my own race and make sure I had a clean start.
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A word from the other three drivers ......................
Welcome back, Baku! Baku Street Circuit
Toyoharu Tanabe
Honda Racing F1
We now come to the sixth round of the season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, an event that was cancelled last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the venue in Baku is a street circuit like Monaco where we won a fortnight ago with Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, it has very different characteristics. At a little over six kilometres, it is one of the longest circuits on the calendar and while the first and second sectors are typical of many street tracks, with several similar 90 degree corners, in the final sector the cars spend a long time at full acceleration. It is therefore important to find the right balance in terms of car set-up for the low speed corners and the long straight. With the PU, having good driveability is important for the low speed corners, while energy management is a factor for the long acceleration down the straight. As usual, we will base our settings on the data we have acquired so far this season, as well as from the 2019 edition of this race.
Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda 22
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Baku will be another new experience for me and I should benefit from some lessons learned in Monaco, another street circuit. My plan building up to the race in Monaco was to maximise the number of laps I did in practice, but unfortunately in FP2 I hit the wall and for me that was the main downside of the last weekend. Even though I didn’t feel that I had lost confidence because of the crash, in Qualifying that last bit of confidence, for example in the fast corners, is very important so I learned an important lesson, especially for street tracks, not to go into the wall!
I really enjoyed my first time in Monaco, it was a fantastic experience and really fun up until that moment in FP2. In general, after five races now, I am feeling more familiar with the race weekend, there are less surprises and I feel more in control and I’ve got used to some of the things that surprised me earlier in the year, like all the media work at races on a Thursday. It was using up a lot of my energy but now I am more comfortable with everything which is a positive thing.
The technical aspect is still quite challenging, especially as in the current situation I have been struggling a bit with the car set-up. I believe that is normal as I have only done five races, but the important thing is that I am learning a lot about the car. My mind set is fine, I’m in good shape and things are going in the right direction. There is still some pressure, but I am enjoying every minute of being a Formula 1 driver and there is always something new to deal with at every new track. In Monaco there was even the new experience of seeing fans and hearing them calling the names of the drivers, which felt really crazy.
This week is Baku, I have never raced there before but I have driven it on the simulator of course. Most of the corners seem to be 90 degree turns and almost all the corners are taken in similar speed range so it will be interesting. It’s another street circuit, but it looks as though it might be a little bit easier to adapt to than Monaco. Hopefully I will be in a better situation there. Again, I will try and do as many laps as possible and my main aim will be to make sure I don’t get too close to the walls in practice and Qualifying. I will take the Monaco experience and everything I learned there and apply it in Azerbaijan.
I am pleased with the definite progress made by the team with the car since the beginning of the season. It’s true the results have not come together yet and I am on a steep learning curve. I spend as much time as possible talking with my engineers to learn more and I hope that will help me continue to make progress through the season.
Die Honda-Teams hatten am ersten Trainingstag noch die alten Motoren im Auto, während Mercedes und Ferrari schon auf die zweiten Triebwerke umgestiegen waren. Aus dem Team war zu hören, dass Honda am Samstag auch auf neue Antriebseinheiten umstellen wird.
