Honda well prepared for opening GP

Having seen its two RA006 cars cover more than 4600kms and set the pace among the V8 runners during four days of testing in Bahrain, the Honda Racing F1 Team was encouraged by its achievements in the Middle East.

"It was good to be in Bahrain for our first test at this circuit, not only because it is the venue for the first Grand Prix of the year, but also because the circuit layout is technically very good to test the car and of course the weather is much warmer than in Europe! We have learnt a great deal about the car and the tyres this week to be really prepared for the first race of 2006," reported Mark Ellis, Chief Engineer Vehicle Performance.

Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director at Honda Racing Development, was equally encouraged by the performance and reliability displayed by the latest specification of Honda RA806E V8 engine. He said: "The Bahrain circuit is quite hard on the engine and we have had a couple of problems as we seek to run the engines for longer at higher revs. On the other hand, two engines have run over 1000kms without any problems, so we are heading in the right direction. We have more improvements to come for next week in Barcelona."