Honda plan major car revamp for Malaysia
By Jonathan Noble Sunday, March 4th 2007, 13:41 GMT
Honda Racing are planning a major revamp to their RA107 in time for the Malaysian Grand Prix, autosport.com can reveal, after admitting that the car has fallen short of expectations.
Although Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello showed some improved form during the recent Bahrain test, where the car's definitive Melbourne-spec aero package was run for the first time, the RA107 still lacks the out-and-out pace needed to fight at the front of the field.
The lack of performance has left the team's technical department seeking improvements, and the first step will be taken during the pre-Malaysian GP test that takes place at Sepang following the first race in Australia.
Honda's senior technical director Shuhei Nakamoto has told autosport.com that major improvements to the car's aerodynamic package and also other mechanical changes would be made for the Sepang test.
"There will be a big upgrade at the Sepang test, and also a revision to the suspension," he said.
Nakamoto said he was pessimistic about Honda's chances of a strong showing in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix - where he doubted they would be able to qualify inside the top 10.
"At the moment we are ahead of Red Bull and Toyota, but behind the rest," he said. "I know BMW have been using a non-2007 wing (in testing) so they lose one or two tenths, but we will still be behind. It will be a massive struggle to get into Q3 (qualifying for the top ten)."
Despite the fears about the pace, however, Nakamoto said that he was comfortable with how the car performed over long runs in testing - something that could allow them to take points in Melbourne.
"We tried several different mechanical set-ups in the test," he explained. "Both Jenson and Rubens found one set-up which may be good in the long run."
Earlier this week, team boss Nick Fry admitted that the start of the season would be a struggle for the team but that he was comfortable that they would improve as the year wore on.
"With our team over the last seven or eight years it has been an evolutionary process and we evolved our way up to fourth place in the championship last year," he said.
"But to get into the top three, we don't feel you can do it with evolution. It is more minor revolution and a lot of features of this car, especially the cooling package, the exhaust packaging and Coke bottling at the rear of the car are probably more dramatic than any other.
"So the headroom this cars gives us in order to develop through the season is much greater than we have had before. I am not promising we will win in Melbourne, far from it, I think we will be in a points scoring position.
"But as we go through the season this car has the ability to get stronger and stronger, and it will be a race winner."
