Honda: 'Spec 2 with improved performance for Baku'

Published on 24 April 2019 by Niels Hendrix

The fourth round of the 2019 Formula 1 championship takes place on the fastest street circuit on the calendar. The key features of the Baku track are the main straight, which is over 2 kilometres in length and the many right angle corners, typical of a city circuit.

Toyoharu Tanabe, technical director of Honda Racing F1, says: “From a PU point of view, the long straight means energy management is an important factor and we will use the lessons we learned here last year when it comes to optimising our settings.”

“This weekend, we will introduce the spec 2 version of our internal combustion engine (ICE) across all four cars right from the start of the weekend. One of the reasons for bringing it to this race is that we found that Kvyat’s PU problem in China was down to a quality control issue. The main benefits of spec 2 are improved durability and life and better reliability. It also offers a slight improvement in performance.”