Honda looks forward to Brazil: 'Thinking back to Senna'

For Honda, the countdown has started. Not only is the engine manufacturer counting down the races to a possible championship for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, there are also only four races left before saying goodbye to F1. During the farewell tour, a memorable place follows for the Japanese.

Good memories

In his preview On the upcoming race weekend in Brazil, Honda F1 boss Toyoharu Tanabe takes a look back at previous Grands Prix at Interlagos. "This is Ayrton Senna’s home town and therefore this weekend holds special memories for me of my time working with him at the races, especially here in Brazil and also for all of us at Honda, as we enjoyed so much success with Ayrton all those years ago. Interlagos is one of the classic tracks with a long history in Formula 1." 

Interlagos is one of the classic ones, according to Tanabe. "At 4.3 kilometres, it is one of the shortest tracks, located in a hilly area so that it has many changes of gradient and features mainly low and medium-speed corners. At around 800 metres above sea level, altitude does have an effect on the car-PU package. It is not as extreme as in Mexico, but nevertheless, we will be taking our data from the last race into consideration, as we prepare for this weekend. There are now just four races to go, so we hope to keep up the momentum of the last few races, concentrating on doing everything to the very best of our ability with both our teams."

Success more often

The last time the race was run in Brazil, Honda left the circuit with two trophies. Verstappen won at the time and Pierre Gasly surprisingly came second, ahead of Lewis Hamilton.