Honda rejects theories about boosting the performance of F1 engines

The Japanese manufacturer has helped Red Bull win its last four Grand Prix, but it has been particularly strong since the French GP when Honda launched its second engine of the season.

The move forward has created intrigue as to whether or not Honda has found extra horsepower through reliability changes to the engine.

There were also suggestions that the Honda benefit was the result of the power unit being able to operate in a more aggressive mode after being withheld earlier in the campaign due to concerns about possible breakdowns.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, however, the technical director of the Honda F1, Toyoharu Tanabe, denied that the engine specification had changed or that the engine was being operated more aggressively.

When asked about the rumors of a 15hp jump with the second spec, Tanabe said, “I’m very happy if it’s true, but it’s not true.

“According to the current regulations, no performance updates may be applied during the season. As a result, our second PU corresponds to the first PU in terms of specification and performance. “

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Toyoharu Tanabe, F1 Technical Director, Honda

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Tanabe said if Honda had made any tweaks to its power unit to improve reliability, which could help improve performance, then other teams would have been notified by the FIA.

“According to the current PU regulations, we have to submit all changes,” he said. “[You are] are only allowed to change for reasons of reliability or cost or logistics, and then we have to submit very detailed submit [information] first to the FIA ​​and the FIA ​​approved these changes.

“The FIA ​​distributes all documents to the other PU manufacturers, so we need the consent of the other PU manufacturers in order to change individual part specifications.

“The reason we’re doing such a detailed investigation is because a long time ago some teams were upgrading their performance to make a change to improve reliability.

“That’s why we’re very careful about changing the performance. It is not possible to improve performance during the season. That is my answer to this suspicion. “

Tanabe says that every advance that others have seen on the Honda engine in recent races is just the result of better use of its energy management systems to maximize lap time.

“We gradually learned how to use the PU,” he explained. “We improve our weaknesses and then we push our strengths.

“As a result, the base spec, the performance, is the same, but the on-track performance has improved in my opinion.”

Though rival Mercedes has pointed out the advantage Red Bull and Honda have on the straights on several occasions, Tanabe doesn’t believe Honda’s power unit is the benchmark in F1.

“We keep analyzing our position in comparison to the other PU manufacturers. This analysis also includes chassis performance, because when you have a good car with less downforce you will sometimes see good engine performance. So it’s a little hard to judge, ”he said.

“The current result shows us that we are still not number one. But as I said, we cannot improve the pure performance like the ICE performance. Then we work very hard to use the PU efficiently on the track. That’s why we want to use the latest hardware more efficiently with Team Engineer. “