Following a surprisingly successful Formula 1 weekend in Malaysia, expectations were also high at Aston Martin for Singapore, a venue that should have suited the AMR26 on paper.
However, the competitive picture at the Marina Bay Street Circuit proved rather disappointing, with Fernando Alonso pointing to problems with the Honda power unit after the race, particularly in terms of driveability.
Honda subsequently sent both its engineers and power units back to Sakura for more in-depth investigations. Those checks did not reveal any specific hardware fault. Instead, it emerged that the Japanese manufacturer was primarily struggling with turbo lag – the time it takes for the turbo to spool up, and therefore the delay between pressing the accelerator and feeling the effect of the turbo kicking in.
That is not a new problem in itself. In fact, it was one of the factors that hampered driveability with the new power unit specification introduced at Zandvoort. But it was precisely for that reason that Honda used its second ADUO token of the year in Madrid to introduce a new turbocharger intended to eliminate the problem.
However, when asked by Motorsport.com, Honda's chief trackside engineer Shintaro Orihara revealed that it had unexpectedly become an issue again in Singapore.
“Even though we introduced a new turbocharger to manage turbo lag, we still struggled to manage that lag in Singapore because of the unique track layout and also the energy-rich situation. That has given some unstable acceleration to the driver,” Orihara admitted.
Shintaro Orihara, Honda Racing Corporation Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
Asked whether the turbo lag could be partly compensated for by deploying the MGU-K in different places than usual, Orihara explained that this only works to a certain extent, although he stressed that the MGU-K had contributed to the problem in a different way.
“MGU-K deployment can help [against] turbo lag, but not enough to compensate for it,” he said. “If we go to energy-rich tracks, we normally use the MGU-K harvesting to compensate for turbo lag. If we have enough MGU-K harvesting power, then the engine can run at a high operation point in the off-throttle sections.
“That helps turbo lag and is nice, but if we go to energy-rich circuits, sometimes it's difficult to get enough MGU-K harvesting value because of the energy-rich situation. In that case, the operation mode of the engine is not enough to control turbo lag and that's why we struggled at Singapore.”
The fact that Honda found no specific problems during its checks at the Sakura facility could potentially raise concerns. After all, it suggests that the same issue could arise again when Aston Martin returns to an energy-rich circuit.
However, Honda stressed that lessons have been learned, leading to new measures – not in terms of hardware, but rather in how Honda operates the power unit through software and settings.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“Yes, we have learned some things from Singapore, so we are preparing countermeasures for the future,” said Orihara. “We understand that we need to improve our control of the turbo lag. At the moment, our control is not meeting the driver demands, so we apply some countermeasures. But again, we need to check how those work on our power unit.”
The mental lesson Aston Martin learned in Singapore
As for Singapore, Aston Martin's chief trackside officer Mike Krack said the disappointment was compounded by expectations being too high heading into the race weekend. That, too, is something Aston Martin has learned from and will seek to avoid repeating in Austin.
“I always call them the emotional dynamics,” Krack said when asked about the disappointment by Motorsport.com. “I think Sepang probably surprised us in terms of outcome and it raised the expectation level [for Singapore] maybe even beyond what was realistic.
“And when you do not deliver it for various reasons, then everybody becomes disappointed and it gets more difficult over the weekend. That is very clear.”
However, such factors are difficult to predict, particularly because driveability cannot be fully captured by simulation tools, as Krack also acknowledged.
“It is something that in simulations you cannot really have this clear picture,” he said. “How much will this cost you, for example? If you have lag or what Orihara was mentioning about the MGU-K stopping, and how it affects the drivability. This goes beyond simple sensitivity simulations.”
Mike Krack, Aston Martin Chief Trackside Officer
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
Aside from understanding the exact cause and the measures Honda has taken, Krack stressed that the team has also learned a mental lesson from the setback in Singapore.
“I think it is important to regroup after such an event and try to understand why it happened, in which areas did we lose out and then take the right learning from it,” he said.
“And [it’s also important] to manage our expectations a little bit better, or at least when you manage expectations, that you have a set of risks that could affect it, which we didn't do in Singapore.”
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