HONDA F1

The team of Honda not represent a lack of financial resources as an excuse to argue the lack of successes. The Formula 1 team have the full support of autogigant Honda Motor Company.

Takeo Fukui, director of the Japanese car manufacturer and autosportliefhebber, said: "Our score in the Formula 1 is zero, we have achieved nothing. That gives me pain. If one trillion yen us to the summit would bring, I would immediately give. ” Our problems are not with money to solve. "
A trillion yen is roughly equivalent to six handred million euros.

First points of the year for Rubens Barrichello in the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Honda Racing F1 Team added three points to its tally in the World Championship this afternoon, when Rubens Barrichello finished sixth in the Monaco Grand Prix. His team-mate Jenson Button came home in 11th place.

It was an eventful race from start-to-finish. Both Honda Racing F1 Team drivers made good starts, but Jenson’s hopes of a points finish were over before the end of the opening lap when he collided with Nick Heidfeld on the exit of the Swimming Pool. He pitted immediately to replace his front wing, but rejoined the race in 20th place.

Rubens, meanwhile, circulated in 11th place during the early laps. The Safety Car was then deployed on lap eight for the first time when David Coulthard and Sebastien Bourdais crashed at Massanet. The debris was cleared quickly and the race re-started only two laps later, and by lap 16 Rubens was up into the points.

As the race entered its middle section, Rubens was flying in his RA108. He set the fastest lap of the race on two consecutive laps and was up to sixth place by lap 51, having overtaken Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber. He made his only pitstop of the race on lap 54, when he fitted dry tyres and rejoined the race in eighth place.

The drama wasn’t over, however. The Safety Car was deployed for the second time on lap 61 following an accident involving Nico Rosberg, and soon after the re-start, two drivers – Kimi Raikkonen and Adrian Sutil – collided, which promoted Rubens to sixth place. The race was then stopped two laps shy of its scheduled 78 laps when it passed the two-hour time limit.

“It feels great to be back in the points today and I'm really happy for myself and for the team,” said Rubens. “We had a good race, however it was unfortunate that I was held up by Trulli for so long early on, otherwise it could have been even better. I'm glad to get the monkey off my back in terms of scoring points as it has been quite a wait, but I never lost the faith. We are capable of good points results and I hope this is the start of a stronger period for us. We just need to keep our heads down and keep pushing forward.”

Jenson’s race was a frustrating one for the Briton: “It was a messy race and I'm disappointed as we should have come away from here with some points given the pace of the car. However, Rubens had a good drive and stayed out of trouble to bring points home for the team, so well done to him."

“Today’s race was full of incident and attrition,” commented Ross Brawn, “with Rubens doing a splendid job to keep clear of all the trouble and drive a very disciplined race into sixth place. Jenson’s race had a setback when he collided with Heidfeld towards the end of the first lap, and as the race evolved, there was no opportunity for him to get back into the points despite showing great speed at times. It is satisfying to score points once again and our pace this weekend deserved it.”

The Honda Racing F1 Team now has a two-week break prior to the next race on the calendar, the Canadian Grand Prix on 8 June.

"Our programme today was focused on the set-up of the car as the track improves a great deal here over the sessions. We completed a good part of our work as the car feels competitive this afternoon, so I am happy with what we achieved. As always, we don't really know where we stand in terms of the competition yet as everyone will have been running different set-up and fuel programmes.

"Monaco is always a very open race where it is important to have a good qualifying session. Based on our work today, I believe we can have a good weekend; so let's hope that this is the case. The weather will no doubt play a part on Saturday and Sunday as it looks like we will have some rain."

“The car was well set-up for my final run in Q2, and the last sector is where we would have improved further, as we had a better front-end for the high-speed corners. Sadly the yellow flags prevented us from realising our full potential. We're not in the top ten and it's disappointing. That’s Monaco for you and what is important is that we know the car was quick enough to have improved."

The Honda Racing F1 Team began its on-track preparations for the Monaco Grand Prix today as the Principality basked in perfect sunny conditions throughout the two free practice sessions. As is usually the case on the opening day at Monaco, the track only became representative during the afternoon session, once some rubber had been laid on the racing line.
As a result, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello completed a modest 26 laps each during the morning session, at the end of which Rubens was eighth fastest and Jenson 12th.

This afternoon, Jenson completed 45 laps during the second session, with a best time of 1:16.351s, which placed him eighth overall. Rubens completed 32 laps to end the day within 0.1s of his team-mate, placing him 10th.

Jenson Button is optimistic his Honda team will be competitive in Saturday's qualifying after a solid start in today's practice session.

"We had two good opening sessions and I had a reasonable balance right from the start, particularly on the harder tyre," said Button, who posted the eighth fastest time in the afternoon.

"This afternoon has really been about getting the long runs in, getting used to the balance and making some improvements.

"We have a lot of useful information from the two sessions today, however as always there is still work to do. We are not quite where we would like to be yet, and as qualifying does not take place until Saturday, I have plenty of time to work with the engineers.

"I'm confident that we will be in a good position for qualifying and also well prepared for any changes in the weather conditions," added the Briton.

Rubens Barrichello finished two places behind and the Brazilian was also feeling confident about Honda's form for the remaining part of the weekend.

"Our programme today was focused on the set-up of the car as the track improves a great deal here over the sessions," explained Barrichello. "We completed a good part of our work as the car feels competitive this afternoon, so I am happy with what we achieved.

"As always, we don't really know where we stand in terms of the competition yet as everyone will have been running different set-up and fuel programmes.

"Monaco is always a very open race where it is important to have a good qualifying session. Based on our work today, I believe we can have a good weekend; so let's hope that this is the case. The weather will no doubt play a part on Saturday and Sunday as it looks like we will have some rain."

Jenson Button - 8th: "It's always very exciting to be back in Monaco and out on track for the first day of running. We had two good opening sessions and I had a reasonable balance right from the start, particularly on the harder tyre. This afternoon has really been about getting the long runs in, getting used to the balance and making some improvements.

"We have a lot of useful information from the two sessions today, however as always there is still work to do. We are not quite where we would like to be yet, and as qualifying does not take place until Saturday, I have plenty of time to work with the engineers. I'm confident that we will be in a good position for qualifying and also well prepared for any changes in the weather conditions."

Rubens Barrichello - 10th: "Our programme today was focused on the set-up of the car as the track improves a great deal here over the sessions. We completed a good part of our work as the car feels competitive this afternoon, so I am happy with what we achieved. As always, we don't really know where we stand in terms of the competition yet as everyone will have been running different set-up and fuel programmes.

"Monaco is always a very open race where it is important to have a good qualifying session. Based on our work today, I believe we can have a good weekend; so let's hope that this is the case. The weather will no doubt play a part on Saturday and Sunday as it looks like we will have some rain."

Steve Clark - Head of Race & Test Engineering: "This morning was spent conducting race preparation work, whilst the second session was dedicated to set-up work and evaluating the tyres for qualifying. Neither driver had a particularly good run on the option tyre, which is brand new for this race. This is not surprising for a Thursday here as the track grip will continue to improve considerably, so we still expect the option to be a good tyre for qualifying and the race.

"We had a good test at Paul Ricard last week and it appears that our relative performance is back to where we were at Barcelona. It is never wise to be over confident at Monaco as there are so many variables affecting the race outcome. From a performance point of view we are hopeful of getting into the points on merit.

"There is a chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday which at this track amounts to a big roll of the dice. We will be looking to take advantage of any opportunity to move further up the field."

		driver	team	time	difference	# #
1.		L. Hamilton	McLaren	1:15.140		40
2.		N. Rosberg	Williams	1:15.533	+0.393 +0,393	39
3.		K. Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:15.572	+0.432 +0,432	42
4.		F. Massa Bulk	Ferrari	1:15.869	+0.729 +0,729	37
5.		H. Kovalainen	McLaren	1:15.881	+0.741 +0,741	39
6.		R. Kubica	BMW Sauber BMW Sauber	1:16.296	+1.156 +1,156	34
7.		F. Alonso	Renault	1:16.310	+1.170 +1,170	27
8.		J. Button	Honda	1:16.351	+1.211 +1,211	45
9.		K. Nakajima	Williams	1:16.372	+1.232 +1,232	40
10.		R. Barrichello	Honda	1:16.418	+1.278 +1,278	32
11.		N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber BMW Sauber	1:16.426	+1.286 +1,286	44
12.		T. Glock	Toyota	1:16.688	+1.548 +1,548	46
13.		M. Webber	Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing	1:17.094	+1.954 +1,954	39
14.		D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing	1:17.131	+1.991 +1,991	39
15.		N. Piquet Jr. Piquet Jr.	Renault	1:17.246	+2.106 +2,106	35
16.		G. Fisichella	Force India Force India	1:17.251	+2.111 +2,111	33
17.		J. Trulli	Toyota	1:17.379	+2.239 +2,239	28
18.		S. Bourdais	Toro Rosso Toro Rosso	1:17.581	+2.441 +2,441	38
19.		A. Sutil	Force India Force India	1:18.176	+3.036 +3,036	31
20.		S. Vettel	Toro Rosso Toro Rosso	1:18.225	+3.085 +3,085	38