China: Honda to be fighting at the front

By Honda Racing F1
September 27 2006

The Honda Racing F1 Team heads east to Asia this week for the final double-header of the 2006 Formula One season, the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, followed one week later by Honda's home race, the Japanese Grand Prix at the Honda-owned Suzuka circuit.

The team has continued to push the development of the RA106 car and RA806E engine right up to the end of the season with six days of intensive testing in Jerez over the past two weeks. These tests provided the final opportunity for race drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button to prepare for the three remaining flyaway races as they focused on the continuing development of the latest specification Honda engine for the last two races, intensive tyre and aerodynamic evaluation programmes, as well as electronic controls upgrades.

With over thirty tonnes of freight packed up and sent on its way to Shanghai for the Grand Prix next weekend, the Honda Racing F1 Team made a pit-stop in Tokyo last weekend as Jenson Button and James Rossiter drive the RA106 at the Japanese Automobile Federation 'Mega Web' Motorsports Festival in Odaiba Bay.

Gil de Ferran
Sporting Director
Honda Racing F1

"Both of our drivers have been very successful in the Chinese Grand Prix in previous years and Shanghai is a great addition to the calendar for our team. We go to China encouraged by our recent race performances and our most recent test in Jerez which was our last opportunity to evaluate all the developments that we intend to use in the final three races. The Shanghai circuit is a very striking facility with a mixture of long straights and an interesting combination of low and medium speed corners. The main feature is the length of some corners which present a unique and difficult challenge, particularly turn one where the drivers start turning at full throttle at about 280 kph and continuously brake and turn for about six seconds until the slowest part of the corner. Hopefully we can maintain our steady progression in performance and be fighting at the front of the field yet again."