Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHonda

Honda weighing up next token use

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Honda is undecided if it will use tokens to make performance-related changes to its power unit ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

With power unit manufacturers allowed to use tokens to develop during the season, Honda used two of the nine available to it ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix but has struggled with reliability problems since then. With Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai telling F1i he is confident the focus can now move on to performance, he doesn’t feel the Hungaroring is a circuit which requires any upgrades to be fast-tracked.

“Hungary is not so important for big power, so of course we are developing that next step but maybe we won’t apply any kind of technology related to the performance side,” Arai told F1i. “Maybe the most important thing in Hungary is the good control to deploy the energy for each corner or each straight. The energy management is more important.”

However, Arai’s comments were made before Honda was handed an extra power unit for the 2015 season having entered as a new supplier this year, which could change its development plans.

Fernando Alonso has so far used five internal combustion engines (ICE), turbochargers and MGU-H components, while Jenson Button has also used five ICEs, as well as five MGU-Ks, six turbochargers and six MGU-Hs.

Click here for a look at the technical updates brought to the British Grand Prix

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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.