Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Honda updates focused on driveability, reliability

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Honda's updated power unit will focus on providing better driveability and reliability at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.

The engine manufacturer has struggled in both areas since the start of the season, and as a result McLaren has yet to score a point in the opening four races. With Jenson Button failing to start the Bahrain Grand Prix, reliability is clearly an area of concern for Honda and chief officer of motorsport Yasuhisa Arai says fixes have been put in place which will be tested in Barcelona.

"The short break before the Spanish GP has been good for Honda, to calmly reflect on what has happened in the first four races, to analyse what we have done well or not so well, and to make preparations ahead of the European races," Arai said.

“We hope that Spain will see another incremental step forward for Honda, in which we’ve prepared updates on the power unit to help with driveability and reliability. And like us, McLaren has had a productive two weeks and will be bringing more updates to test at the track and we’ll see how the car will run together as one.

“We’re confident that every step we take together as a team is in the right direction, and hopefully this weekend will once again prove our continuing progress."

Arai has previously said Honda has yet to finalise a programme to use its available tokens to update its power unit.

Click here for a look at the radical Honda power unit design

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.