Honda confirms that Aston Martin will debut a new engine in Zandvoort: “It is important to continue learning”

Honda’s general track director and chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, announced this Tuesday that “there are two more races left before introducing the new engine” in the Aston Martin, so the new power unit will not arrive until the Dutch Grand Prix, from August 21 to 23 in Zandvoort, and asked to “continue learning” for the future.

“We have two more races left before introducing the new engine. It is important to continue learning with this current specification, to be able to apply what we have learned about energy management in future races,” said Orihara in statements published by Honda in ‘X’

The Japanese engineer analyzed the Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, the “longest” route on the calendar and “one of the most popular among drivers and fans.” “It is a technical layout for the drivers, with complex corner sections. The combination of long straights and high-speed corners makes it a very challenging circuit for the engineers as well, both to predict throttle application and to analyze the energy deployment throughout the lap,” he said.

“It will be a test for the manufacturers in terms of energy management, so we have to consider how we will deploy the power on the long straights. The pickup here is quite limited, even considering the length of the circuit. This puts more emphasis on getting the deployment plan right,” he added of the electric power.

In addition, he revealed that they have “two more races”, Belgium and Hungary, “before introducing the new engine” in the AMR26. Therefore, “it is important to continue learning with this current specification”, to be able to “take those findings about energy deployment to future races, like Monza, where we also have long straights.”

“An additional unknown factor is the changing weather conditions at the circuit. Silverstone stayed dry, so Spa could be the first time we have had wet conditions in a session. Weather-wise, anything can happen here,” he concluded.