24/04/2019
NEWS STORY
Partly due to the nature of the Baku track, with its long main straight, and the issue that caused Daniil Kvyat to be retired from the Chinese Grand Prix, Honda has opted to introduce the spec-2 version of its internal combustion engine for this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
"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," confirmed Honda F1 Technical Director, Toyoharu Tanabe.
"One of the reasons for bringing it to this race is that we found that Kvyat's power unit problem in China was down to a quality control issue," he revealed.
"The main benefits of spec-2 are improved durability and life and better reliability. It also offers a slight improvement in performance."
The improvement in performance will come as a timely boost to Max Verstappen, who expected to lose out to Ferrari and Mercedes on the main straight, it should also help Toro Rosso drivers Alexander Albon and Kvyat as they seek to make it into Q3 for the first time this year.
"From a PU point of view, the long straight means energy management is an important factor," said Tanabe, "and we will use the lessons we learned here last year when it comes to optimising our settings."