McLaren prepares for tough race at Spa

McLaren-Honda achieved its best result of the season at the Hungarian GP last month, with 5th place Fernando Alonso and 9th position for Jenson Button, a real accomplishment before going on vacation after a particularly difficult start to the season. The Hungarian Tourniquet, where speeds are slow and overtaking difficult, helped the British team stand out.

Honda took advantage of the summer break to optimize its Power Unit before the Belgian GP played this August 23 at Spa-Francorchamps. But these developments seem far from enough for the Woking team to expect a good result.

« Spa is going to be hard for us, due to the configuration of the circuit which requires power, support, a large part of the route being swallowed up at full power", underlines Fernando Alonso who has never won on the Belgian Ardennes route.

His teammate Jenson Button, winner of the Belgian GP in 2012, shares the Asturian's opinion. “We cannot expect a significant increase in performance, particularly on this circuit which does not suit our car… ”, added the 2009 world champion.

Yasuhisa Arai, the sporting director of Honda R&D, expects a tricky recovery until the calendar is more favorable. “As expected, Honda has improved the combustion characteristics to make our Power Units more efficient from Spa onwards. This weekend's test will be important to test the engines of both cars. The Belgian race will certainly be difficult for the team and the drivers who expect penalties on the grid », specified the Japanese engineer. “We must measure our optimism and wait Singapore (September 20, after the Italian GP at Monza) and beyond to reap the fruits of our work on the track”, added Éric Boullier, Team Principal of McLaren F1.