Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Honda running ‘aggressive engine maps’

Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai says the engine manufacturer has been running “aggressive engine maps” at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Following such a difficult pre-season, Honda was forced to run conservatively in the Australian Grand Prix just to ensure one McLaren saw the chequered flag. In Malaysia the MP4-30 was much more competitive but failed to finish, and Arai says a further step forward has come as the result of a much less conservative approach.

“Our pace up until yesterday was very good I feel,” Arai said. “Already we tried much more aggressive engine maps and engine data, and that’s the reason why yesterday was so good. But today I don’t know, I’m a little bit disappointed.

“Tomorrow in the race I hope we have a good pace and good strategy and can keep a good position in the race.”

While unhappy with Saturday’s result, Arai says the steps forward made by Honda since the opening race are the cause for optimism.

“From Australia to here I think is very quick improvement and progress I feel. Up to yesterday the pace is very good I felt, so today is a little bit disappointing. The actual progress is much better day by day and we are much better than Australia. The time difference and gap is less than two seconds, so I have the confidence that we’re making good progress day by day.”

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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.