Australian GP: Honda race notes

The Honda Racing F1 Team's Rubens Barrichello ended today's Australian Grand Prix in 11th position after a determined fight throughout the 58-lap race.

His team-mate Jenson Button struggled with the balance of his car, then a difficult day was compounded when he incurred a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane approaching his first pit stop.

The team now heads to Malaysia for a three-day test at the Sepang circuit, where it will take advantage of the three-week break between races to complete important development work for the next round.

Jenson Button:

"Not a very good day or result unfortunately. I was running heavy with fuel in the first stint and had to pit early because the car had a massive amount of understeer. At my first stop I requested front wing but because of a radio problem the team was unable to respond."

"When I pitted again, we had to put a lot of wing on but it didn't make any difference. So the problem may be in the front end aerodynamics. If that proves to be the case, then it is something we can certainly address straight away. Then of course I had the drive-through penalty which just compounded things."

"Going forward, once we know where our problems lie and what we need to do to fix them, we have three weeks and a test in between to start addressing them. Hopefully we will be able to demonstrate some improvement as early as the next race in Malaysia."

Rubens Barrichello:

"I feel like we had a competitive race today, even though I finished outside of the points. The tyres were working well and our strategy also worked to our advantage. I was losing time behind Jenson in the first part of the race but that's the way racing goes. We have no team orders so I had to find my way past and go on from there."

"Apart from that, I thought we could quite possibly have scored points here. I think we got the best from the car today so we have shown that there is a lot of work to do to improve. At least we know where our problem is and we have some ideas on how to fix them. I'm sure we can make some progress before Malaysia."

Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director:

"On a positive note, both cars ran reliably today. Rubens drove a strong race from 17th on the grid to 11th place, less than nine seconds outside of the points. Jenson's car balance was not good at any stage of the race, which we believe to be a front end aero problem. On top of that, a drive-through penalty made him lose several places."

"We now have to improve our race pace as we target points-scoring positions. We have three weeks between the races and we will do everything we can to give our drivers a more competitive car at the next round."

Rubens Barrichello: 11th
Chassis: RA107-02
Fastest Lap: 01:28.098

Jenson Button: 15th
Chassis: RA107-04
Fastest Lap: 01:28.387

-credit: honda