Honda reverts to older engine spec

Moscow: Honda has reverted to its previous specification of Formula 1 engine despite a positive response to the upgrade in Russian Grand Prix practice.
The Japanese manufacturer introduced the update at the Sochi event to prepare the new engine ahead of Honda’s home grand prix next week.
It was lauded by Toro Rosso after Friday practice but Honda has opted to go back to the old spec.
This is because Honda believes there is more calibration work to do and the engine can be better matched to the chassis.
It says it is not for reliability reasons.
“Having studied all available powerunit data after FP2, we realised that, although the performance was encouraging, there is still some work to do in some areas such as calibration and matching the powerunit to the chassis,” said Honda’s trackside technical director Toyoharu Tanabe.
“So we have decided to revert to the older specification powerunit on both cars for the rest of the weekend.
“We believe we can complete the work before the Japanese GP, so that we can run the new specification pus on both cars from then on.”
Crucially, running the new engine on Friday has added it to Honda’s pool of available power units.
This means it can work on the engine as it desires and then use it in Japan next week without triggering fresh grid penalties.
Toro Rosso has used the opportunity of reverting to the older spec ICE to introduce a new turbocharger, MGU-K and MGU-H on Hartley’s car.
Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley will still need to start the Russian GP at the back of the grid.