Honda has to improve race pace
The Honda Racing F1 Team had a reliable run to 11th and 15th places in today’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix. While it wasn’t the result that the team would have liked, it is a reliable platform from which to build for the remainder of the year.
The team’s drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, both made good starts from 14th and 16th places respectively. Jenson made up one place into the first corner, while Rubens jumped to 14th place, and they then circulated nose-to-tail for much of the opening stint.
The next bit of excitement took place on lap 14 when Rubens – who was on a lighter fuel load – passed Jenson. Rubens then made the first of his two pitstops on lap 19, rejoining the race in 19th place. Jenson followed suit on lap 28, rejoining 3.8s behind his team-mate.
However, misfortune was about to strike. Jenson had to take a drive-through penalty on lap 30 for speeding in the pitlane, from which he emerged in a distant 17th place. Rubens made his second pitstop on lap 39, rejoining in 13th place; Jenson made his second stop – his third visit to the pitlane – on lap 42.
Both of the Honda Racing F1 Team drivers then lapped as quickly as possible until the chequered flag on lap 58. Rubens crossed the line in 11th place, 0.6s behind Heikki Kovalainen and Jenson was 15th, 1.4s adrift of Vitantonio Liuzzi.
There is now a three-week break in the F1 calendar, during which time the team will continue to develop its RA107s ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix on 8 April.
Jenson Button P15 | Fastest Lap 01:28.387
“Not a very good day or result unfortunately. I was running heavy with fuel in the first stint and had to pit early because the car had a massive amount of understeer. At my first stop I requested front wing but because of a radio problem the team was unable to respond. When I pitted again, we had to put a lot of wing on but it didn’t make any difference. So the problem may be in the front end aerodynamics. If that proves to be the case, then it is something we can certainly address straight away. Then of course I had the drive-through penalty which just compounded things. Going forward, once we know where our problems lie and what we need to do to fix them, we have three weeks and a test in between to start addressing them. Hopefully we will be able to demonstrate some improvement as early as the next race in Malaysia.”
Rubens Barrichello P11 | Fastest Lap 01:28.098
"I feel like we had a competitive race today, even though I finished outside of the points. The tyres were working well and our strategy also worked to our advantage. I was losing time behind Jenson in the first part of the race but that's the way racing goes. We have no team orders so I had to find my way past and go on from there. Apart from that, I thought we could quite possibly have scored points here. I think we got the best from the car today so we have shown that there is a lot of work to do to improve. At least we know where our problem is and we have some ideas on how to fix them. I’m sure we can make some progress before Malaysia."
Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director “On a positive note, both cars ran reliably today. Rubens drove a strong race from 17th on the grid to 11th place, less than nine seconds outside of the points. Jenson's car balance was not good at any stage of the race, which we believe to be a front end aero problem. On top of that, a drive-through penalty made him lose several places. We now have to improve our race pace as we target points-scoring positions. We have three weeks between the races and we will do everything we can to give our drivers a more competitive car at the next round.”
