Formula One news

Rubens pinning hopes on French GP

Rubens Barrichello says that the disappointing Honda car has improved thanks to the test in Barcelona last week. However, the Brazilian believes that it will take until at least the French Grand Prix before the team is competitive again. Although the Honda engineers have located the root of the problem, it is proving to be a lengthy process solving it.

"Obviously the test and the effort that the team is making with the car had to result in some changes, so I think the car is a little bit better, but everyone improved, so we have to put the car on the track and see what it does," Barrichello said.

"But although we know where the problem is, it's been very difficult to address, even though the team has been working 24 hours a day, flat out, and I think it will be some time before we can sort out the problems, but we have some upgrades such as this one and then we're going to have another for Montreal and then again in France and hopefully by then we will have a competitive car."

It is said that the original problem resulted from the team's new but badly collaborated wind tunnel. Now that everything is working in order the team is working well in unison, trying to fix the problem.

"We need to work together. It doesn't matter if I get out of the car and say this car is bad. They already know what the car is. We have to be very specific about the problems and to translate that to the engineers and those people who work on the aerodynamics of the car. Being very specific will make the car better, so now that the wind tunnel is working well and so on, we can see that the things that are happening on the track are happening in the tunnel as well, which wasn't the case before, so now we are tracking the problem much better," he added.

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