Frustration for Honda

The Honda Racing F1 Team’s Rubens Barrichello brought his Honda RA107 home in 13th place today after a tough weekend in Bahrain. His team-mate Jenson Button’s race was brought to a premature conclusion after just three corners when he was caught up in a first lap battle for position.

The team were resigned to another frustrating race pending the opportunity to introduce development steps to a currently uncompetitive package. Their focus now lies with the work taking place back at the factory, coupled with a return to the test track prior to next month’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Rubens Barrichello P13 | Fastest Lap 01:35.842
“Well I finished the race at least but that’s very little consolation. The track conditions were so blustery and the car driveability was terrible, so it was a really tough race, especially knowing that we couldn’t be competitive. Now we have to put a disappointing few races behind us and look to what we can do to improve the car. There is a great deal of hard work ahead of us but we will get there, I’m sure.”

Jenson Button DNF | Fastest lap N/A
“I got a good start and made up at least three places then at turn 2 Taku (Sato) ran wide, tried to squeeze me and I had nowhere to go so I had to go on the dirt on the inside. Then in turn 3 I had Coulthard and someone else fighting around me. DC went wide then cut back sharp and again I had nowhere to go. We touched and that spun me round, then the anti-stall didn’t cut in, I stalled and that was the end of my race after just three corners. The track conditions out there were very slippery and windy so it will have been a tough race for everyone. Sadly, I wasn’t part of it.”

Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director “Unfortunately we had realistic expectations heading into this race and our performance today has only served to underline the problems that we have with our current package. Whilst Jenson did not even get the chance to complete a lap due to a third corner incident, Rubens did a valiant job of fighting to the finish with what was clearly a very difficult car to drive. All we can do now is put these first races behind us and return to base, where every bit of our focus, resource and effort is being directed towards turning our situation around.”