Mixed feelings at Honda after first day at Fuji

The Honda Racing F1 Team completed the first two practice sessions at Fuji Speedway today. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello completed a total of 123 laps, during which they carried out lots of useful set-up and tyre comparison work.

Although Fuji staged two Japanese Grands Prix in the mid-’70s, today’s 4.56km Hermann Tilke-designed track has never previously been used for F1. As a result, today’s running was vital preparation work for the remainder of the weekend.

Both RA107s ran with medium downforce levels and Rubens Barrichello was the quicker of the Honda Racing F1 Team’s drivers in the first session. He completed 24 laps and set the 11th fastest time (1:20.686s). Jenson was confined to the garage in the closing stages whilst the team made some changes to the car to improve the rear-end stability. He was unable to return to the track in sufficient time to improve on his lap and ended the morning in 19th with a time of 1:21.541.

Track conditions improved throughout the day and lap times came down as a consequence. Jenson managed to improve the balance of his car in session two and he ended the day in 14th place (1:20.336s). Rubens tried various set-up options during the afternoon and he finished it in 17th place.

The team will now analyse all of today’s data in an effort to improve the RA107s ahead of Saturday’s final practice session and qualifying.

Jenson Button "Everything ran pretty smoothly today as we experienced the new Fuji circuit for the first time. After trying some different set-ups on the car this morning, I felt more comfortable with the balance in the afternoon session and we understand where we are going with the set-up for the rest of the weekend. As for the circuit, I was really pleased with the flow and there are some tight challenging corners towards the end of the lap and a couple of potential overtaking places, so generally I was impressed."

Rubens Barrichello "I have the same problem here as I had in Spa and the car is running short on aero balance. I just don't have the grip level and the balance that I would like, so we changed some parts on the car this afternoon to see if this helps with the issue. We have a lot of data to look at overnight to try to make some improvements for the morning. I like the circuit here, the only issue is that there are some blind corners so the marshals will need to react quickly with the yellow flags as you are not able to see when coming round some corners, which is what happened when I hit Yamamoto."

Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director “This morning, as is usual with a new track, we checked the required downforce level for the Fuji layout and it matches the prediction of our simulation programme. Both drivers worked to find a good balance on the car before we completed our race preparation in the second session with both prime and option tyres. Jenson is reasonably happy with the long run pace but we lack some performance on the first lap with new tyres. Rubens had some problems in the afternoon with braking stability. We are still investigating the issue and will make the necessary changes to find a solution for tomorrow.”