HONDA ALREADY FOCUSED ON SUZUKA
Honda used two of the three engine development tokens it had left to improve its RA616H power unit at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Only Fernando Alonso ran the upgrade in Friday practice so the Japanese manufacturer could assess it ahead of its home race the following weekend. The goal was pretty clear there: to take an engine grid penalty in Sepang rather than at Suzuka.
The evolution, which focuses on the engine block and exhaust, is primarily aimed at reducing weight and increasing durability instead of outright performance.
“It's mainly reliability-driven, so it's a reinforced block and a few things on the engine,” McLaren-Honda racing director Eric Boullier said. “There is a possibility to exploit the PU a little bit better, but it's not just pure power on top”.
