Honda's test team gears up for Bahrain

Since last month's introduction of the latest RA106 at Barcelona, the Honda Racing F1 Team has been busy putting the new car through its paces in Spain. Despite winter sunshine and largely dry track conditions, the temperatures have been chilly on the Iberian peninsula - quite unlike the conditions expected in the opening three Grands Prix of the season that take place in the heat of Bahrain, Malaysia and Australia.

To prepare for those races, the team is now leaving Spain for an important test in the warmer climate of the Bahrain International Circuit, venue of the season's opening race in four weeks time.

Mark Ellis, Chief Engineer Vehicle Performance "We've just completed another positive test at Jerez and we are now looking forward to next week's four-day test in Bahrain where we can fully evaluate the latest tyre developments from Michelin in realistic conditions and start our real preparations for the opening races. The pace of the RA106 has again been very encouraging and the car has been extremely reliable despite a couple of small issues."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development, is also keen to see how the RA106 performs in the Middle East; more so as Honda has an engine update to evaluate. “We will have some new improvements next week on the engine that we will be running in Bahrain,” he confirms. “We've had some minor issues but overall we are in good shape."