F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Honda spends two tokens on ICE upgrade

Honda has confirmed it has spent another two development tokens on internal combustion engine (ICE) upgrades ahead of the British Grand Prix.

Honda's head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa said after the Austrian Grand Prix that upgrades could be imminent, with Hasegawa eager to introduce anything that can deliver performance as soon as possible.

The Japanese manufacturer spent its first development tokens on a turbo upgrade ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, and has now followed up with further improvements ahead of Silverstone. The upgraded power unit sees a further two tokens spent on the ICE intake, which Honda says is aimed at increasing combustion efficiency.

Hasegawa says the manufacturer is working to gain back some engine power it had to give up as part of its turbo upgrade introduced in Canada.

“It is even the opposite side because to create enough power, we spend a little of the engine power for the exhaust, but we will sacrifice some engine power with the new turbine,” Hasegawa explained.

Hasegawa also said Jenson Button's sixth place in Austria was a display of the full potential of the Canada update.

Power unit token spend so far in 2016:

Ferrari: 3 (29 used)
Mercedes: 11 (21 used)
Honda: 10 (22 used)
Renault: 21 (11 used)

Chris Medland's 2016 British Grand Prix preview

Technical analysis Austria

Scene at the Austrian Grand Prix

Breakfast with ... Alexander Rossi

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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.