Italy: Honda to race 2007 engines

By Phil Huff
September 8 2006

As revealed here at RealHondaF1.com on 29 August, Honda Racing F1 are to use their 2007 specification engine in the Italian Grand Prix, despite the unit suffering failures in testing.

In a bid to steal a march on their rivals, Honda are introducing the new engine before the regulations freeze development. With their target of a race win achieved for 2006, the team have little to lose and are prepared to take the risk of failure in order to further develop next years RA807E V8 engine. While their rivals at Ferrari and Renault are locked in a fierce championship battle, they're unable to take the same risks.

"We have decided we are going to bring in the 2007-spec engine at Monza," Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda Racing F1's Senior Technical Director explained to leading F1 website autosport.com. "We have decided we are going to bring in the 2007-spec engine at Monza. The reason is that we have finished the two-race cycle here and we will start the new one in Italy, culminating in China where we have to submit the engine for homologation."

The team will run the engine in Italy and China, before introducing a further revision for the Japanese and Brazilian races. The team are aiming to hit the 20,000 rpm mark by the Japanese race, building their traditional 'Suzuka Special'. With the loss of the Japanese Grand Prix to rival Toyota's Fuji circuit in 2007, this will be Honda's last chance to perform well on truly home soil.

Super Aguri will also use the new engines, but will have to wait until the Japanese event. Both teams are expected to use identical engines for 2007.