Here are again Murramassa's quotes from Japan media talking about Honda.
Interesting quali. mod info.
Friday
http://f1sokuho.mopi...663&tt=-1&at=15
(PUs used in Sochi are) completely same as before spec wise, so as power unit itself, not much can be done about it to be honest.
This is a power track, so we are working on more effective use of it, such as combustion timing setting, in order to be able to maintain quali setting run as long as possible.
(quali setting run is) using it kinda as overtake button, for example
Russia is more severe than Bahrain in terms of fuel consumption, but we want to run at non fuel saving mode as much as possible
today the car itself was running stably. That both cars were within top 10 is not the reason for it. At China we were plagued with tyre degradation, but Sochi has smooth surface and less fast corners, so our long runs were stable. If we can get good position at quali, we'll be able to have good performance in race as well this time it seems.
in order for that, it appears fuel consumption will be essential factor. Russia is more severe than Bahrain in fuel consumption, so it's expected to be the toughest race of the season so far in terms of fuel consumption. But at the stage of FPs, the car balance is better than in China and the long run pace is good, so finding out the setting that enables non fuel saving run as much as possible is our task for Saturday and Sunday.
(regarding token use) Nothing has been decided yet.
Saturday
http://f1sokuho.mopi...702&tt=-1&at=15
Had it not been for the understeer that occurred on the final attack lap, we would've had good chance to go through to Q3 because the gap to top10 was only 0.1s.
it's not that we failed on anything, just that we should've added a bit more front wing
- JB's race engineer Tom Stallard (not sure about spelling) decided to add front wing for the final attack, and asked JB if he wanted to add front wing angle by 1 turn of the adjustment screw, but JB answered "half turn".
[info in the article]
We have to accept that this is the situation we are currently in. This is a power track, and it's not that we made any big mistake in quali. This is our capability/performance. I'm gutted about that. We must solve and get out of this situation.
Sunday
http://www.as-web.jp/f1/14511
http://f1sokuho.mopi...746&tt=-1&at=15
http://sportiva.shue.../05/04/post_44/
also f1sokuho (print)
pre-race ------------------------
(some quotes can be post-race actually, just cannot be sure)
Here at Sochi autodrom, if you run on quali mode, you can go faster by about 0.2sec/lap. However, it gives more loads on ICE than normal race mode. Therefore, so far we had only allowed drivers to use it for limited number of laps in one race.
we made a decision to use the full power mode, that is usually used in quali, aggressively in race as well. Wanting to use for/when overtaking and battling. Suppose the lap time difference it makes is 0.2sec/lap., that means that you can finish the race 10sec earlier in the 50laps race. Sometimes that 10sec doesnt make any difference, sometimes it makes you gain 1 position. But it's worth the try, I suppose.
There is originally certain proportion of mileage/duration within overall engine life for which the quali mode can be used. However it's not that it is dialed strictly at/on the absolute limit, but merely the point at which the reliability has been verified/confirmed. So it's not like you must not exceed the threshold even slightly, but we are constantly expanding the limit step by step by confirming/verifying the limit little by little, like "perhaps it should be ok to use this much?".
The duration that quali mode can be used is approximately determined and set by results of durability test, but it's not like it blows immediately the moment you exceed the threshold. If you can gain 0.2sec per lap, it's 2sec in 10laps, 10sec in 50laps, so it's quite significant. Of course the degree of its effect/contribution differs from circuit to circuit, so it's not like if you do it it should lead to the result without exception, besides it comes with risks, but we thought it's worth it at a power track like Sochi, so we made discussion and eventually decided to make it run at quali mode as much as possible in race as well.
This trial is something we have never done before. That means we decided to bet on this race, pour all we've got into this race.
This year we make 21 races with 5 PUs, but you know, actually it is possible that this single PU makes all the 21 races if use it by holding the performance down.
- steering wheel of mp4-31 has a switch called "red button"
- a driver presses on it to turn on quali mode ie shifting ignition timing forward to extract more power for when necessary to push in the race.
- At Russian GP, the quali mode has been turned on from the beginning. Previously the red button had been used to turn on quali mode, meanwhile for Sochi it was used to turn off quali mode.
[info in the article]
- If we deemed this is the time we should push, we aggressively use quali mode even if it means that it comes with increased risk for failure, and we dont mind about possible damage caused by it and having to change PU next race due to it, that's our stance. We explain that to our drivers as well.
[an unnamed mclaren-honda engineer quoted]
post-race ---------------------------------------
The major positive is that long run pace was good. Of course that's because car's setup was done appropriately, but power unit side was able to extract the best as well.
Midfield pack is very tight in this season's F1, so by small/subtle setup difference we can either be 5th best team or drop to 7th.
This point scoring finish is important in the sense that we could find out that if we can withdraw this car's potential properly we can fight in the midfield solidly on merit.
Surely this double scoring finish has been helped by the confusion in early part of the race, but that's part of the race as well. Car's performance is important, but experience of drivers that operate it is as much important in the race.
As a power unit, we withdrew all we've got at this very moment for today. As I told before the race start, we were thinking we wanted to make it run at quali mode as much as possible, and this time we managed to do that.
During the race we could run on quali mode almost throughout the race. Fuel saving aside, in terms of output we were running at full power. Of course this is the first time we've done this. This time we made a challenge. Especially Jenson who was competing with Sainz was attacking aggressively. He passed Sainz at the end of the race, as a result he was only able to come 10th after all, but he would not have been able to chase down and close in that much had he not been using full power / quali mode. As a car's performance, Jenson as well had the speed so he couldve finished in 7th in terms of pace.
it was not just us having fuel consumption issue, and this year we cannot give detailed direction to drivers during the race (due to radio rule), but excellent race skills of two expert drivers shined and compensated that, they managed things very well without affecting race development/result.
We have a feeling that we've done our best, so it was a very good race.
(perfect race?) No, only when you win you can say perfect. Surely this time we could finish at the top of the midfield group. But front group is extremely fast. I dont know about the fuel saving situation for Mercedes and Ferrari, but we don't consider that there was that much gap in terms of pure car performance alone. Had it been not for fuel saving, we wouldn't have been far off from the front pack that much, so that's the major issue/subject that must be overcome.
Compared to 00s back then, while overall level of rivals has risen, level of Honda itself has decreased. That we cannot be running at the front is because Honda's constitution weakened I guess. In 00s, I still had the impression that as long as we achieve the top notch technology in Japan we could win. But that's not the case anymore and completely different right now. Therefore we are working hard / doing all we can to get back the strength/form, and if we cannot get that back, there is no point to be Honda.
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on tokens
http://www.as-web.jp/f1/12942
http://www.as-web.jp/f1/13895
Ideally you'd want to introduce new PU at the same timing as using tokens. Otherwise the PU that's already used before will have to be an old version PU unable to be applied tokens.
Of course we are working on development, so if we wish to introduce new spec PU right now, it's not impossible to do so, but as of now what's satisfactory/good enough has not been completed yet. There's no point to use token if nothing has been changed, so we dont want to use token for what's half baked.
Nothing has been decided yet at this moment, but next race at Barcelona is more a technical circuit, and the following race is monaco which is street circuit, so we consider we can be decent without upgraded PU.
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