Honda positive after first day at Monza: "Had a trouble-free day"

Pierre Gasly's second free practice came to an early end and for a moment it was feared that the Honda engine was to blame. Looking back on the first day, Toyoharu Tanabe didn't say a single word about it, so the damage seems to be less than first feared for Gasly. Honda's top executive also states that a great deal of work has been put into understanding and working out the new technical directive from the FIA.

"Apart from Max going off the track in the morning, we have had a straightforward day from a PU point of view and both our teams did plenty of laps. Of course, it’s only free practice, but it is still positive to see the positions on the time sheet, so it’s a good start to the weekend," Tanabe said on his employer's website.

Honda busy with new FIA rule

The Japanese manufacturer finished a slightly different programme than usual. "Our programme was slightly different to the usual one on Friday, as we worked on assessing the best engine management settings to comply with the new FIA technical directive, which requires us to use the same mode for qualifying and the race across all four of our cars," Honda said.

This data will be analysed in detail in the next few hours. "We will now use today’s data to optimise the one mode which we will be using for qualifying and the race. From qualifying onwards it will therefore be something new for us, as we try to find the best balance between performance and reliability."