Toyoharu Tanabe, Honda F1 Technical Director, has spoken positively of the progress made by the two Honda-powered teams, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda following the end of the first week of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“For the first four-day pre-season test, working with both Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda and Aston Martin Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda, it was encouraging that we got through all our planned programme with both teams.
“As for today, everything went smoothly and we acquired a good amount of data.”
Tanabe said that it was the first time where Honda had supplied power units to two teams since the beginning of the hybrid era in 2014, and that the test allowed them to figure out to do so effectively.
“It’s the first time in the hybrid era that we are powering two teams and at this test, we learned a lot about how to operate with them both.”
He added that neither team experienced any notable issues, and they will be able to use the data they collected in order to continue their developments in preparation for the first race of the season at Albert Park on 17 March.
“There were no major issues with the power unit throughout this test. Toro Rosso has completed 482 laps over the four days and Red Bull did 475, meaning that Honda PUs ran a total of 957 laps.
“We will now spend the next few days analysing all of the data we have acquired here, in order to move forward with development in the final four days of testing next week prior to the first race in Australia.”
