Honda hopes new spec engine will cure vibration issues

The Japanese car manufacturer is working on an improved power unit, which should be ready around the time of the Canadian Grand Prix, to help cure its lack of power.

However, Honda F1 chief Yusuke Hasegawa says that the update will also address the vibration problems that it has suffered since pre-season testing.

One of the consequences of the vibration issues is that it has affected the engine’s upshifts – which has a knock-on affect on power and driveability coming out of corners.

Fernando Alonso said about the performance of the McLaren-Honda package at the Chinese Grand Prix: “I like the behaviour of these cars, the behaviour of the tyres as well being able to push throughout the corner and corner to corner, definitely it is a step forward and I feel quite competitive on the corners.

“We still have some issues on the driveability side that we need to solve on the exits, and some upshifts problems that are also hurting our confidence and driveability out of the corners as well. But in general I think we are quite okay on the corners.”

When asked by Motorsport.com about the progress in curing the vibration issues, Hasegawa said: “I don’t think the drivers agree, but I think we have improved [the situation] since the beginning of the season.

“We improved gradually but it is still not completely solved of course. So with the next update I would like to solve clearly.”

When asked to firm up the time frame of the upgraded engine, Hasegawa said: “We cannot tell you an exact date but here or at any grand prix. If we have the chance, we would like to update our engines.”

Hasegawa also revealed that it made changes to its powerunit in China, thanks to their being more freedom now that the token system has been dropped.

“We updated some inlet system, so there is no limitation about tokens if we need to change the package of the engine,” he said. “But there are still limitations in terms of the number of engines for the season.”