Reliability and speed satisfies Honda

Race drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button concluded their pre-season preparations with yet another encouraging test at Barcelona last week. During the three-day test, Jenson set the fastest time of this year’s testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. Of equal importance, the new RA106 displayed stamina as well as speed.

"The test has been a very satisfying conclusion to our pre-season preparations with the race drivers,” confirmed Mark Ellis, Chief Engineer Vehicle Performance. “We completed more than 2900km over the three days with excellent reliability and successfully used two of the latest specification RA806E engines to cover the target two-race mileage. We found some positive directions with the chassis set-up and overall are pleased with the performance in the very cold conditions."

The durability displayed by the latest specification RA806E engine also pleased Shuhei Nakamoto, Engineering Director at Honda Racing Development. "We were very pleased to run the upgraded engine for the equivalent of two race distances and are now very close to finalising the engine specification for the first race," reported Nakamoto.

Anthony Davidson will complete the Honda Racing F1 Team's pre-season testing programme at a three-day test in Valencia this week, prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix on 12 March.