Contrary to earlier reports, Honda is not planning to use its 2007-specification engine at the upcoming Chinese GP.
The Brackley based team tried to debut the updated 2.4 litre V8 units at Monza a fortnight ago but called it off when Anthony Davidson suffered two practice blow-ups.
Honda successfully honed the design during testing at Jerez last week, but due to the new two-race schedule commenced with older engines at Monza, both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello must now wait until the Japanese GP to change specification and avoid penalty.
Japan ’06 is teams’ last chance to introduce new two-race engines before designs are homologated, or ‘frozen’, for 2007 and beyond.
Chief engineer Mark Ellis confirmed that, at Jerez last week, the engine spec to be debuted at Suzuka was successfully ‘signed off’.
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
