Honda will make update decision at last minute

©WRi2

Honda will leave a decision on whether it introduces upgrades to its power unit at the Malaysian Grand Prix until the last minute.

Head of F1 project Yusuke Hasegawa has previously suggested Malaysian was being targeted for an upgrade in order to avoid any power unit penalties at Honda's home race in Japan a week later. Previewing this weekend's race, Hasegawa says a decision will be made once at the track, with the upgrade ready to be used if required.

“The Malaysian Grand Prix will no doubt be another hot and humid battle to be fought amongst the drivers," Hasegawa said. "The changeable conditions mean it will be tricky to find a good balance with the car, and the rain can of course give us an added challenge.

"The circuit in Sepang is an undulating mix of long straights and sweeping corners, which all make for an exciting race with lots of good overtaking battles.

"We are not 100 per cent certain if we will install any power unit updates for this race, but we’ll look to make our final decision at the track based on the balance of performance and reliability."

Hasegawa has previously suggested an internal combustion engine (ICE) upgrade had not yet reached the desired performance level on the dyno.

Honda currently has just three power unit development tokens remaining, and has been focusing on the ICE during its more recent upgrades. The last update was introduced at the Belgian Grand Prix, where Fernando Alonso finished an impressive seventh having started the race from the back row of the grid.

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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.