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Honda Race Preview

Following an encouraging - if ultimately unfulfilled - season opener in Australia, Honda and its partner team BAR Honda arrives in Malaysia for the second round of the 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship. The BAR Honda 005 made an instant impression at Melbourne with Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button wasting no time in underlining the potential of the new package. On Friday in Australia both drivers set top five lap times during the first qualifying session - the only real test of ultimate one-lap performance within the revised Grand Prix schedule, as cars now run with considerable fuel loads during the second of the new single lap qualifying sessions.

Although many of the race team members have remained in the Far East since the dust settled in Albert Park, BAR Honda has been busy back in Europe. Reserve driver Takuma Sato evaluated further technical developments during a three-day test at Jerez in Southern Spain, including some tyre evaluation work.

While Sato has been concentrating on chassis improvements, Honda's technicians have been preparing for the unique climatic combination of searing heat and high humidity that will prove the biggest challenge to men and machinery in equatorial Malaysia. With BAR Honda's testing programme so far having been conducted in wintry Europe, preparations for such challenging conditions might seem impossible. However, on Honda R&D's dynamometers in Japan, Honda's engineers can not only replicate the extreme levels of heat expected in Kuala Lumpur but also adapt the RA003E's software programmes and mapping to adjust the engine's performance to the particular characteristics of the Sepang circuit - a track that features some notably long straights plus several tight hairpin corners.

BAR Honda's arrival in Malaysia comes at a very topical time for Honda in the area. Malaysia has always formed an important part of the company's global network and, back in 1969, the country was chosen as the base for Honda's first automobile production facility in South East Asia. Adding to Honda's on-going expansion in this important Asia/Oceania region, the construction of a new car plant has just been completed in Malaysia. Located in the Melaka region, the facility was officially opened in January at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Mahathir. The factory has an initial production capacity of 20,000 units; the first cars produced have been CR-Vs, which are to be followed by the Honda City, Civic, Accord models.

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