Solid opening day for Honda F1
Unseasonably cool conditions greeted the Honda Racing F1 Team at the Hungaroring today but an air temperature of just 20 degrees didn’t stop the team from completing its usual Friday practice preparations.
The team’s third driver, Anthony Davidson, completed the most mileage for the team as usual. In session one, he did 28 laps while carrying out his usual set-up and tyre work, and he ended the hour in second place.
Race drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button limited their running in the opening hour, preferring to wait until the circuit’s grip levels had improved. They completed just 6 and 5 laps respectively, ending the session in sixth and seventh places.
As expected, grip levels were much improved in session two, which led to a busy racetrack. Anthony again completed the most laps of the Honda Racing F1 Team’s drivers (31), while focusing mainly on long runs. He ended the session in fifth place.
Rubens and Jenson were back in 13th and 14th places in session two after completing 17 and 15 laps respectively. The drivers must now use their extensive knowledge of the 4.3-kilometre track (Rubens won this race in 2002; Jenson has finished fifth for the last two years) to improve the RA106’s set-up overnight and to make their tyre choice for the remainder of the weekend.
The weather could yet play its part in the outcome of this Grand Prix. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, and if it comes, it will give us the first wet qualifying session of the year.
Anthony Davidson “The temperatures here are much cooler than we expected which has made it a tough day for everyone. The tyres that we have for this race just aren’t designed to be operating in this temperature window so we have to hope that the rest of the weekend gets warmer, then we can start to work the tyres properly. All the drivers had the same problem, we’re seeing a lot of graining which makes it difficult to set the car up properly. It wasn’t about going fast today but saving the tyres and looking for a good balance. Still we were able to complete a lot of laps so we have some good information to look through before tomorrow.”
Rubens Barrichello “It was quite a normal Friday today really except for the weather. The track will be very different on Saturday and Sunday but we had a reasonably competitive car today and should be able to adapt to that. My thoughts today are with my friend Cristiano da Matta who is in hospital in America and I wish him all the best.”
Jenson Button “It’s been a frustrating day for us today and the main problem is with the tyres. It’s the same for everyone really in these conditions and the graining is causing some big issues. Anthony managed to complete some decent work this afternoon though so we’ll just have to hear what he says and see how things look tomorrow.”
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director "We certainly expected for the weather to be much warmer this weekend and the unusually cool conditions are dominating the behaviour of our tyres, which in turn is having a great influence on the car balance. Nevertheless, it has been a productive day for our team and we have collected a lot of data on the tyres and set-up changes. It does look like many of our competitors are dealing with similar issues therefore we will have to see how the conditions evolve and how we all adapt to that."
