Fernando Alonso will race in Japan with new engine

F1 News – Fernando Alonso has been given the green light to race Honda’s updated engine at the Japanese Grand Prix, following encouraging results from testing it in Malaysia last weekend.

The Spaniard trialled the revised powerunit – which features a lighter engine block and revised exhaust to improve efficiency – during Friday practice at Sepang. Honda spent two of its development tokens on the tweaks.

Honda wanted to check that the changes did deliver on track the steps hoped for – without impacting on reliability – so conducted a thorough check of the data after the Friday running Alonso did.

And with the results of that analysis having been positive, Honda has confirmed that the Spaniard will race the updated Honda from now on.

The powerunit should last him until the end of the season.

Teammate Jenson Button is to stick to the older specification engine for now – with Honda eager not to get any grid penalties for a change of powerunit for its home race in Japan.

However, it is possible that Button will be moved on to the upgraded engine for the next race in the United States – which will result in him getting a grid penalty there.

A decision on that will be made in the week leading up to the Austin event.

Category: Formula One