Honda explains developments to power unit: 'Essentially all new'

Honda, engine supplier to both Red Bull and AlphaTauri, undoubtedly want to end its long-term cooperation with the two teams, as well as its participation in the premier class of motorsport, with a bang. How they plan to do this, and which developments on the power unit have preceded it, was explained today by the technical director of the company.

In a preview of the season opener in Bahrain, Toyoharu Tanabe, technical director at Honda, explained the Honda power unit (PU) that will be found in the 2021 Red Bull and AlphaTauri cars and how it compares to previous versions.

Tanabe begins, on the official website of Honda Racing: "From Honda’s side, in order to improve our performance, we have modified many of our PU components so that we effectively have a new PU for this season. Compared to last year, the new one has more power, a lower centre of gravity and is very compact.

"Therefore, apart from the power increase, the PU has also improved the overall packaging and therefore performance of both our teams’ cars", the technical director said. Previously, Tanabe also reported that the 2021 Honda engine is even more compact than the concept version with which it made its entry into Formula One in 2015.

Most laps

The technical director also argued that the winter testing earlier this month provided enough valuable data to get off to a strong start in 2021. He explained: "During the three day pre-season test at the same Sakhir circuit we will race on this Sunday, Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda completed the most laps of all the teams and, combined with Red Bull Racing Honda, our PUs did a total of 791 laps, equivalent to 4,281 kilometres.

"This workload produced plenty of data that will be useful on the PU and chassis side for this weekend’s race and both teams were happy with what they achieved."

Nevertheless, Honda remain focused on that ultimate goal: winning the constructors' title with one of its customer teams. "We will take every race as it comes as we strive for our ultimate goal of winning the Formula 1 World Championship."