Honda speaks
“We are stuck at box zero due to Honda’s problemswe had Honda problems in FP1 and Honda problems in FP2. We came to this race with completely new parts, a new package to try, but today we couldn’t do enough laps.” Fernando Alonso did not hide his disappointment at the end of Friday in Melbourne, which ended five seconds off the top of the standings.
The Aston Martin driver stressed that it is disappointing to be short of spare parts (specifically batteries) when the English team is the only one supplied by Honda. Adrian Newey revealed that the four batteries available at the beginning of the weekend are now only two and therefore there are several questions about the presence of the two AMR26s on the grid on Sunday.
Shintaro Oriharahead of Honda engineers, commented on today as follows, underlining that some faint light at the end of the tunnel seems to be starting to appear: “Today’s FP2 was invaluable for us, because we were able to see the effects of our countermeasures. With Lance and Fernando completing a total of 31 laps we were able to gather the necessary data to determine that the elements we first implemented on the dynamometer at Sakura work on the track. As a result, according to the analyzes collected during the session, there are fewer battery vibrations. The day began with the identification of a problem with the powertrain of Fernando’s car. We tried to resolve it before the start of the FP1, but unfortunately we were unable to complete the work in time. We also had a problem with Lance’s power unit and we decided to return to the pits to investigate, so that we could make the necessary changes for FP2.”
