Honda struggles to find pace in qualifying

This was rather bad. One Aguri made it to the top ten, and the other just missed out. The Hondas meanwhile were further back. Makes one wonder if the teams might have accidentaly switched cars during production.

Why on earth are the Aguris running so fast and the Hondas running so slow? We could blame the Bridgestone switch, which the factory Honda team is still getting used to. Or maybe we could blame it on the livery - perhaps the images of Earth simulate the Earth's weight too and slow the car down. Whatever, the Hondas got their butts kicked by the Aguris. And everyone else.

Jenson could only manage 14th, while Rubens didn't even make the first cut, qualifying a lowly 17th.

Here's what Jense had to say, from Formula1.com:

Jenson Button, Honda (14th, 1m 27.264s):
"It hasn't been a good weekend for us so far. Today it was difficult to judge how hard to push the tyres. At the start of the lap I was getting understeer because the tyres were not up to temperature, then later in the lap I was getting oversteer as the rears were going off, which just shows the issues that we have. I got the best out of the car today and right now we are where we are. We'll obviously do what we can for the race, then we have some work to do to start addressing the issues we have identified."

Honda better get this sorted out soon. It's going to be very painful to see the Aguris of all teams finish much higher than them. I mean, the least they could do is finish ahead of those cars. Sigh.

Race starts in just over an hour. Let's hope it won't be so hard to watch.

Super Aguris outpace Honda

So much for being "Honda B". At the second round of free practice on Friday both Ant Davidson and Taku Sato set faster times in their Aguris than their factory Honda counterparts.

Little surprise that both Ferraris topped the afternoon timesheets. But for Honda to be way down in the timesheets AND outpaced by the Super Aguris, customer car or not... well, that might be cause for some concern.

What exactly is wrong with the Honda? There's been a lot of discussion regarding their dismal form over winter testing, specially after projecting themselves among the top runners in this years' field. Are they struggling? Why can't they seem to find any pace?

Your guess is as good as mine. I'd say Honda could be playing coy and are simply playing things down (way down). They could just be focusing on maintaing race pace and reliability after already having privately tested flat out pace. Or they could really be struggling, which is really going to be very disappointing for us fans.

On its own, Honda's engine should perhaps be among the best in the field. But if they really are stuggling then it's very likely that the team is having difficulty setting up and getting the car to drive like it should with those Bridgestones on. I just hope they get things sorted out. Sooner than later too. In the meantime, we'll just have to hope and wait for race day itself.

Anyhow, here's what Jenson had to say about their dismal afternoon run, from Formula1.com:

“It’s quite realistic in a way,” 14th-fastest Jenson Button admitted glumly. “We didn’t have the best winter, we were improving the car all the time but it’s still not where want to be. We are really struggling under braking as many drivers behind us found, we have a stability issue, but that’s not all of it, just a part of it. It’s going to be a tough weekend!”

Somebody please tell me that they're just planning on taking everyone by surprise?

Anthony Davidson on Jenson Button

I was browsing through some Ant stuff for a bit, and found this little tidbit from an interview on Crash.net:

Q:
There could be as many as four British drivers in F1 next year, which is good to the sport in this country. How much are you looking forward to the chance to rekindle the old karting battles that you used to have with Jenson?

AD:
A lot. Hopefully, we are in a position to be high up on the grid as Jenson probably will be and I won't be looking for him in my mirrors during the race as he comes round to lap me! It will be good to be out on the same track as him and I hope we can have some good battles.

Aguri and Honda are two totally different teams but, as I said earlier, I am still in the Honda family and it will be interesting to not only fight with Jenson but with the team I used to work with - it will be quite strange.

Just wanted to share that. There isn't much else on the news at the moment. Ant deserves his time in the spotlight though. After all those years behind Jenson and Taku (and then Rubens), I'm glad that he finally gets his chance at Super Aguri (with Taku... yet again). He's a lightning-quick driver, and his testing and development abilities will be greatly missed at the factory Honda team.

Anthony Davidson Fan Blog

Just stumbled upon an Anthony Davidson fan blog. :)

All you Ant and Honda fans might want to check it out, as well as their neat website at AntDavidson.com.

I hope Ant starts scoring some serious points for Super Aguri Honda this year. Oh, and by the way, Ant will start the 2007 season at 27 too. 27 IS good. Hahaha. :)