32 http://www.racecar-engineering.com SEPTEMBER 2019
FORMULA 1 – HONDA RA619H
mechanical parts, the racecars and the teams
are different to one another. But, notably, both
designs have similar cooling layouts with a large
heat exchanger on the centreline of the car.
‘Information which can flow between the
teams has been of considerable use and it’s
always interesting to see how someone else
uses the power unit, even if they don’t give you
the details,’ Red Bull Racing’s chief engineer
Paul Monaghan says. ‘It’s also nice that Honda
is prepared to look at the engine in terms of its
layout and design, and try to improve things
for our chassis installation. Generally, the
interaction is better this year, so I quite happily
give up the sort of familiarity that comes with
continuity to have this change ... When you
change supplier you lose your continuity from
the previous five years to run the engine, and
you lose the familiarity of the operational
aspects, the installation aspects; but equally it’s
nice to have a different set of challenges.’
According to Tanabe the biggest difference
between the two teams is not actually the
installation of the power units, but rather how
the drivers use them. ‘We can get double data
compared to the one team with two teams,
and then there are some differences in theteam philosophies, or ways of working,’ he
says. ‘Having two teams to supply appears to
accelerate our development definitely, the
differences to the installation are not enough
to really impact our development. That said,
you have four drivers with different
characteristics, you do see a slight difference
between them, the way they apply the throttle,
the downshift timing, things like that. So we
have to do some software things, in terms of
engine braking or the torque map, we adjust
those to each driver, generally speaking.’Vee for victory
Honda is already looking to the future and the
development of the RA620H power unit and
beyond. With only minor changes to the power
unit regulations expected in 2021, it seems
that the manufacturer’s iterative development
will continue. ‘We are still in the position of
catching up to the top PU manufacturers, in
terms of power and also reliability,’ Tanabe says.
‘We are still developing for both as we know
our position is a little bit down from these top
competitors. We have started this season with
a reasonable performance and reasonable
results. But reasonable means not yet fantastic,‘Having the two teams to supply, with both Red Bull and Toro
Rosso, definitely appears to have accelerated our development’
The Red Bull and Honda partnership has already proven to be a potent one and the team has been pleased with the way its PU supplier has helped it with chassis installation matters
Combustionengine
6-cylinder in 90-degree vee configuration; aluminium alloy
block and heads; overhead cam; pneumatically actuated
valves; variable inlet; direct injection.
Turbocharger
Single, split on common shaft with MGU-H.
Capacity
1600cc maximum.
Speed
15,000rpm maximum.
Valves
24.
Bore
80mm.
Compression ratio
18:1 maximum.
Hybrid system
MGU-H: 7kg; max speed 50,000rpm; max torque 200Nm; max power
120kW. MGU-K: 4kg; max speed 125,000rpm.
Energy store
Located in monocoque under fuel cell.
Weight
145kg minimum for complete power unit.TECH SPEC: Honda RA619Hso we really need to push to improve our
performance, we’ll keep pushing.’
At the start of 2019 Toro Rosso team
principal Franz Tost predicted that the Red Bull
RB15 would win races during the season. He
was proven right in Austria, and it seems
unlikely that Honda and Red Bull will have to
wait for another 13 years before the next win.
In fact, the next step for Honda is to get to the
stage where it can compete with Mercedes
and Ferrari for world championships.