Honda are planning to bring their final engine update to the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend, according to chief Yusuke Hasegawa but will face a penalty.
Honda have three development tokens left after spending seven on an update for Spa which focused on the internal combustion engine and turbo compressor. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso will take a penalty when the update is introduced as they have already used their allocation for each of the six engine components.
With Japan being Honda’s home Grand Prix, Hasegawa is keen to avoid the penalties there.
“We introduced a new engine in Spa and at that moment we had nine races so we need to introduce one more engine,” said Hasegawa to Autosport. “If you split the nine races it could be Malaysia or Japan or the USA.
“We do not want to get a penalty at Japan, so Malaysia makes sense. We are still discussing it with the team. I don’t think the fans will let me take a penalty in Japan. I will not be allowed to walk into the circuit!”
It is yet unclear if both Button and Alonso will get the update, when asked by Autosport, Hasegawa replied, “Another point to be discussed”.
“I don’t want to get both cars behind from a race tactics and a constructors’ point of view. It might be better to split the tactics for the cars.”
Honda have not confirmed what part of the system will be updated.
“We may introduce it in a different are,” said Hasegawa. “Because once we change the combustion it will cost us so much setting time we do not want to put a lot of resource on it this year”
