Masamitsu Motohashi, Honda F1’s Deputy Technical Director, was encouraged by the performance of the Honda power unit during the post-Spanish Grand Prix test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the Scuderia Toro Rosso outfit showing good pace across both days.
Daniil Kvyat took on the responsibility on day one on Tuesday, with the Russian coming into the test on the back of a strong drive during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix where, had circumstances gone his way, he should have finished higher than the ninth place he ultimately finished the race in.
Kvyat completed one hundred and twenty-one laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with his time of 1:17.679 the third best of the day, and Motohashi was pleased with the amount of running performed and the amount of data logged for analysis.
“It has been a productive first day of testing here in Barcelona,” said Motohashi on Tuesday. “Using a testing PU fitted on Monday, Kvyat completed a high mileage, allowing us to acquire plenty of data.
“This is particularly useful as we have the figures from only a few days ago over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend to use as a benchmark. Some of our work was aimed at tuning the PU elements for the next race in Monaco.
“We also carried out routine tests as well as doing some long-term development work and we went through our programme as scheduled.”
Day two of the test saw Alexander Albon take over the driving duties, with the Anglo-Thai racer completing one hundred and nine laps and finishing second fastest overall thanks to a lap of 1:17.079, and Motohashi was pleased to see another positive day of running, with everyone now analysing the data so they can prepare for the Monaco Grand Prix.
“We had another useful day of testing, following a similar programme to yesterday,” said Motohashi on Wednesday. “That means we worked on some items aimed at long term development, while also looking at PU settings that we might run in Monaco, where practice starts in a week’s time.
“Our PU worked smoothly over the two days and we completed a total of 231 laps with Scuderia Toro Rosso. Monaco GP is next on our agenda, so we’ll be analysing all the data we gathered here to make further improvements for this event.”
