HONDA F1

Jenson starts ninth, Rubens 12th in Bahrain.

The Honda Racing F1 Team enjoyed its best qualifying performance of the year at the Bahrain International Circuit today. Jenson Button achieved his pre-weekend aim of a top 10 starting position, while his team-mate Rubens Barrichello will start tomorrow’s 57-lap Bahrain Grand Prix from 12th position.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	4	Robert Kubica	BMW	1:32.893	1:31.745	1:33.096	12
2	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:31.937	1:31.188	1:33.123	12
3	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.750	1:31.922	1:33.292	13
4	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:32.652	1:31.933	1:33.418	12
5	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33.057	1:31.718	1:33.488	12
6	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW	1:33.137	1:31.909	1:33.737	15
7	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:32.493	1:32.159	1:33.994	19
8	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:32.903	1:32.185	1:34.015	22
9	16	Jenson Button	Honda	1:32.793	1:32.362	1:35.057	17
10	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:32.947	1:32.345	1:35.115	17
11	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:33.194	1:32.371		12
12	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:32.944	1:32.508		12
13	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:32.800	1:32.528		15
14	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	1:32.975	1:32.790		15
15	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	1:33.415	1:32.915		15
16	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:33.386	1:32.943		15
17	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:33.433			7
18	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:33.501			5
19	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:33.562			9
20	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:33.845			6
21	19	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:34.140			9
22	18	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:35.725			5

Honda Racing F1 Team is a Formula One team run by Japanese car manufacturer Honda. The team is based in Brackley, United Kingdom, and uses the facilities of former British American Racing, which Honda fully acquired in 2005. Engines are built at the Honda R&D facility in Tochigi, Japan.

Ross Brawn was recently appointed team principal. Honda's current drivers are Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. The team began by using the same predominantly white livery that Honda used in the sport during the 1960s, but has since switched to a livery dubbed the "Earth Car", with minimal corporate advertising, and depicting the planet earth and space.

Honda has a long history in grand prix racing. The sport's first Japanese team debuted with its own home-grown chassis and engine in 1964, taking its first victory in only its second year in Formula One at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. The original RA271 was replaced by the RA300 at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which John Surtees won on its maiden race. Honda withdrew from Formula One in 1969, supplied engines to various teams between 1983 and 1992 and again with British American Racing in 2000, which Honda had adopted as its own factory team by 2005 before winning the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Keen to highlight its rich heritage in Formula One, Honda came to the Geneva Motor Show with and old RA300 and its latest successor, the RA108. Compared to the 3-liter 420-hp V12 and 5-speed manual in the vintage RA300, the new RA108 is driven through a seven-speed sequential gearbox by a 2.4-liter V8 producing over 700 hp.

practice bahrain

Honda Racing F1’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will soon be spending more time in the pitlane, thanks to a development of the standard ECU fitted to each car in 2008. The ECU, developed jointly by Microsoft and McLaren and referred to as the Cross Bionic Operator Extender (X-BOx), allows a simple wireless controller to be attached.

“The Formula One circus likes visiting Bahrain. Everyone’s looking for more than just another paddock and there’s a lively city near to the Bahrain International Circuit, where there are good places to eat and go out.

“It’s usually quite windy in the afternoons, which results in sand getting blown onto the track. The knock-on effect of this is felt most in qualifying, when everyone wants to be the last person on the track, when the circuit is at its cleanest. Therefore there’s usually a lot of traffic to negotiate.

“The BIC is one of the slower tracks that Hermann Tilke has designed, but it’s still quite interesting. From a technical point of view, braking and traction are crucial, and you break very hard into Turn 1, from seventh gear - more than 300kph - down to first gear. This provides the best overtaking opportunity on the lap.

“Turn 2 is a left kink, which, without traction control, is going to be quite challenging because you’re going to have a lot of slip. We might see some snap oversteer here as a result. Turn 3 is easy flat and leads to the right-hander Turn 4, which is taken in third gear. It’s off-camber and could pose quite a traction problem without TC.

“Then you come to a very interesting part of the track, the fast right-left chicane. It’s enjoyable, but it can be frustrating from a car set-up point of view because if it wasn’t for this section you’d soften up the car. As it is, you have to keep some roll stiffness in the car for this quick change of direction.

“You then come to the hairpin, which picks up a lot of grip throughout the weekend. The exit goes uphill, into a long left-hander, which tightens up into a sharp left. Everyone locks up a bit because it’s off-camber and over a crest, so the inside front is unloaded. Traction is really important on the exit because the back straight follows, where you get up to sixth gear before slowing for the third-gear left-hander. I would set up my car’s aero balance - the amount of wing I carry - for this corner.

“After this corner there’s a long uphill stretch into a flat right-hander. The front left is loaded for a long time through here and then you come into another right-hander, which is an overtaking opportunity if the car in front is using its tyres too much. A very long straight leads to the last corner, where it’s easy to out-brake yourself. You lose more than you can win through here because it’s really important to have a clean exit onto the start-finish straight.”

We are pleased with our performance so far this season and it was very valuable to complete the full race distance in Malasyia last weekend. Our overall position in the midfield pack is encouraging, however we have to make a further step to be competing for points on a regular basis. With no opportunity for testing since the season began, we will be using the data gathered in Australia and Malaysia to maximise our performance at what will be another very hot race in Bahrain. I’m hopeful that we will be knocking on the door of the top ten in qualifying once again.

"I’m a big fan of Bahrain as a country and I also really enjoy the circuit as there are some great fast flowing sections where you can really push the car. Confidence under braking is the key to a quick lap. You have to believe in the car’s performance and have full confidence that you can stop effectively. There are several overtaking opportunities, particularly at Turn 1 after the long straight, where you can make up crucial ground as people tend to brake surprisingly early. The most challenging sector is probably Turn 14 which has a very quick approach where you brake as you turn into the corner, so you have to be careful not to lock the inside front wheel.The sand blowing onto the tarmac can be a challenge as you never know how the grip levels will change."

"The race in Malaysia last weekend showed that the Honda team continues to make steady improvements on our pre-season form. I was particularly pleased to see both cars finish the race reliably and encouraged by the performance of the car and our drivers in achieving the maximum possible from the weekend. The race gave us a very accurate reflection of the RA108’s position relative to its competitors and provided valuable data with which to continue the development of the car ahead of the European season.

"The first two races have established that the RA108 is capable of competing strongly in the midfield pack and is close to breaking into the top ten runners. To score points however, we need to over-achieve on our current level of performance. Whilst we will aim for this in Bahrain, the European season when our next developments arrive, is a more realistic target. Following our encouraging start to the season, the spirit in the team is very good and we are all confident that we continue to make progress over the next few weeks."

Honda Racing F1 April 3 2008
Round three of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship takes the Honda Racing F1 Team to the Kingdom of Bahrain for its only visit to the Middle East of the year. The 56-lap Bahrain Grand Prix takes place at the Bahrain International Circuit, which is located 20 kilometres south of the Kingdom’s capital, Manama, and is one of eight tracks on this year’s calendar designed by Hermann Tilke.