F1 News
'No more upgrades for the Red Bull Honda engine this year'
- GPblog.com
In order to keep up with Mercedes, it is important for Red Bull Racing to continue to develop in the areas where it is allowed under the modified regulations. The power source is a very important factor in this, but in that area the team doesn't have to expect any more upgrades. This is what Masashi Yamamoto, Honda's F1 managing director at Autosportweb says.
No more major upgrades
'Due to the changes in the regulations, we can no longer update specs 1-2-3 as we did last year. This is because we had to confirm ourselves to the homologation this season.' Because of this it is not so flexible to continue developing, so the end is in sight in that perspective. Not so much in capacity, but what is allowed within the regulations.
'From the beginning of this year we have been working on it, but the specifications from now on will remain until the end of the season.' However, that doesn't mean it will stop completely, because Honda is allowed to work on the reliability of the power source. Yamamoto: 'Reliability changes can be made if all four companies agree and the FIA approves them.'
Backlog on Mercedes
The Japanese also spoke about the gap with Mercedes. 'I can't talk about the difference between Mercedes and Honda as a number, but there is a small difference. We are losing ground on Mercedes and after the analysis of the GPS and other data, I have the feeling that we are only a little bit behind.'
'We are still losing, but we are getting closer and I think that it will be a battle of general strength where we have to take into account the chassis and the strategy'. Finally, Yamamoto-san said that they will use the results of past and future races to update targets for next year.