Alexander Albon, Toro Rosso, Baku City Circuit, 2019

No ‘spec three’ Honda power unit for Albon in France

2019 French Grand Prix

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Alexander Albon will have to make so without the new ‘spec three’ power unit his fellow Honda users will race at the French Grand Prix.

While both Red Bull drivers will take the upgrade at Paul Ricard, Daniil Kvyat will be the only Toro Rosso driver to run with the new hardware.

Kvyat was the first of the team’s drivers to change his power unit, at the third race of the season in China. Albon also replaced his engine that weekend following his crash in practice but that engine has subsequently returned to his ‘pool’ of available hardware, putting him in a more advantageous position for avoiding future penalties.

“We knew whatever we do now we’re going to get a penalty for it,” Albon explained. “On my side of the garage we’re looking quite good with the engine. I think Danny maybe was a bit closer to the limit so they’ve decided to change earlier than I did. That was about it, really.”

“As a team we didn’t want two cars to get penalties so we kind of split it,” he added. “Regarding the future we’ll just have to see. We don’t know when I will get one.”

Honda introduced its ‘spec two’ power unit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly played down the gains expected from its latest engine.

“The last we introduced was more on the reliability side, this one will be focused more on the performance. But we don’t expect a massive gain from it.

“I think the overall performance will be slightly increased, but it’s not like it’s going to change massively, or we’re going to catch the teams ahead of us massively. Let’s see what we can do during the weekend. It will give us a bit more in the race. It’s not going to be a massive difference in qualifying, but a bit more in the race.”

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3 comments on “No ‘spec three’ Honda power unit for Albon in France”

  1. 8th race, 3rd engines for RBR’s pair and 4th for Kvyat… Yeah, tell me about the reliability of this year’s Honda engines…

    Of course it is nice they are not popping every 2nd race, but only because they are hastily replaced with a newer version.
    I don’t believe their engines can run 6 races straight… probably 3 max.

    1. I think the old spec still is being used in FP1 so they are still running. So where is you proof that the engines are broken?

      Red Bull already said when Honda has a better spec ready just bring it, that is development otherwise it’s stalment.

  2. Yeah, sure, they still test with version 1 and rebuild cars 2 times per Friday…
    Even if they do (they don’t) – it still doesn’t show how Honda’s engine can survive more than 3 races.
    You want proof they are broken? I want proof they are NOT broken.

    Again – 8th race, 3 engines per driver already (4 for one)… simple math.

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