Honda believes that their engine can withstand 7 races

Honda believes that their latest engine can withstand seven races now, an important step forward in reliability if they want Red Bull to be competitive in the future.

The Japanese manufacturer introduced another engine in the fourth race of the season, the GP of Azerbaijan, which was focused on improving reliability. Since they did not have any problems in 3 races after Baku, Honda believes that their engine can withstand 7 races now.

It’s the number of races that manufacturers are aiming to do with a single engine if drivers want a season without penalty, considering that they have three V6 engines, 3 turbochargers and 3 MGU-H before they get a penalty.

Although Red Bull and Toro Rosso will most likely have to do the punishment due to the early introduction of the 2nd engine specification, Honda believes it has taken a major step forward as far as reliability is concerned.

“I think it will,” said Tanabe, Honda’s technical director when asked if the new specification of the engine will sustain 7 races. “I hope it will, we will see.”

“It always depends on how you use it. If you use it mildly, then you can do a great deal of mileage. If you press it, the mileage is smaller. We’re looking for a balance. We are trying to reach mileage in the range of 5,000 or 6,000km, which is not easy. It’s very complicated. “

For example, Mercedes has done about 4,500 km with its first specification of the engine in the first six races. Mercedes is the only manufacturer who has not yet introduced the engine upgrade in 2019.

Ferrari and Mercedes have traditionally introduced upgrades in Canada, but Ferrari this year has introduced its new engine two races earlier. The second engine upgrade came after the summer break. Tanabe joked about how he loves Mercedes and Ferrari’s style of introducing upgrades, but admitted that Honda is unlikely to endure until the summer break

This means that Honda will have two options: it’s the first to give the drivers a fresh engine of the current specification, or to introduce upgrades. Tanabe is hoping that the change will come with an upgrade.

“Depends. If you have an accident or engine failure, then you need to change it. We are always ready to do this, as with the other specification, we introduced a little earlier than we expected. But in China we had an accident with Toro Rosso and we did not have another specification. Therefore, we applied the first specification. If we have another specification available and we need to change the engine due to problems, then we will replace it again. “