Honda ready for busy weekend in Qatar: 'That's critical'

For Toyoharu Tanabe the Brazilian Grand Prix was a big disappointment. The Honda chief saw the Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri drivers fall well short of the straight but hopes for improvement in Qatar.

Shock for Honda

With a new Mercedes engine Lewis Hamilton was unbeatable on the Interlagos circuit. The Brit overtook everyone like it was nothing and only had some trouble with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. That engine will have to sacrifice power in the coming races, where Honda hopes to remain as stable as possible.

''The Brazilian Grand Prix was somewhat disappointing for both our teams, but now we are focused on the next race, the last round of this final triple-header of the season in Qatar. The Losail circuit will be a new experience for all the F1 teams. It is one of the longer tracks on the calendar at 5.4 kilometres, with mainly fast and medium speed flowing corners and its main straight is particularly long at over one kilometre,'' Tanabe said in the preview from Honda.

Title fight in Formula 1

''With no actual track data, we have carried out plenty of simulation work ourselves and along with our two teams and we will have to wait until the start of free practice on Friday to see how well we have prepared. It will be crucial to optimise the settings quickly, based on actual running data from practice, therefore it’ll be another very busy weekend for both engineers and mechanics.''

Honda is still in the title race with Red Bull Racing and Verstappen and will be hoping to win the title with both. ''There are only three races to go now, and we’ll be trying our very best at all time to ensure we have nothing to regret come the end of this tough competition,'' Tanabe concludes.