Honda's F1 Technical Director Toyoharu Tanabe has been speaking about the remarkable day one that Red Bull and Alpha Tauri enjoyed at F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain on Friday. Honda engine cars completed 250 laps in total throughout the two sessions, without encountering any significant technical issues. All the while, the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin all had to stop for prolonged periods. As well as being reliable, the Honda power unit also looked racey, as Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the day in his RB16B. "As this will be Honda’s last year in Formula 1, all our staff at Sakura and Milton Keynes were very motivated over the winter, determined to do well and be even more competitive", Tanabe told Honda.Racing. "The first day of testing is always eagerly anticipated and this time, with just three days available and also having a new Power Unit for this year, the feeling was even more intense than usual." Max Verstappen completed 139 laps on his own for Red Bull, while Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly shared the load for Alpha Tauri. "It was a decent day’s work without any major issues on the PU side. Our program focused on checking all the PU parameters, as well as function checks and optimising PU modes", Tanabe concluded.
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