HONDA RA107

The 'Honda RA107' is a Formula One racing car with which Honda Racing F1 is contesting the 2007 Formula One season.

Contents

Launch Information

2007 Season

Honda RA107B

Complete Formula One Results

Notes and references

External links

Launch Information

It was revealed to the public on January 25 2007 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain. The 'RA107' was launched with the interim winter testing livery before the final colours were unveiled on February 26.
The 'livery launch' for the RA107 took place at the Natural History Museum in London and showed a completely new take on the look of a Formula One car. Honda's 2007 paint scheme does not use sponsorship branding but instead is focused on Honda's environmental desires. The car has been dubbed by some (including Honda themselve and team CEO Nick Fry [1]) as 'The Honda Earth car' and the car's livery depicts the planet Earth against the black background of space, with the only logos on the car being the Type R Honda 'H', and the Bridgestone logo, all at the very front of the car. On the rear wing is the web address of environmental awareness website My Earth Dream, launching on February 27, 2007. This is the first time in 30 years that a Grand Prix car has gone to the grid without a sponsored permanent livery.
Along with the launch of the new theme, a number of new sponsors were named at the launch event. These included two large global brands, Universal Music and Gatorade, as well as a large number of other companies including Fila, IBM, Instron, Oliver Sweeney, Perkin Elmer, Showa Denko, TUV and GF Agie Charmilles. ^[1]

2007 Season

The team's form in pre-season testing was patchy, and Jenson Button urged the squad to improve. It seemed the car was unable to produce the sort of results the car's predecessor had done but nobody on the outside could have ever known how awful the situation actually was.
The RA-107's sheer lack of pace was evident at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 18th, with Button and Barrichello qualifying 14th and 17th respectively (well behind the 'customer' Super Aguri team, whose car is effectively an update of last year's Honda, the RA-106). Barrichello finished the race in 11th place, with Button in 15th after receiving a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Things did not get better for either driver as the team did not score any points at Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco, Canada or America either. The car's reliability was proving to be good but this only further exposed the lack of pace it had. Honda did have their chances to gain points, however, at Monaco, Canada and Europe. The former of those races was where Honda had their most competitive race up to that point but they were on the wrong strategy and required to pit an extra time, dooming them to another pointless race. The other two races, however, were ones of chaos and at Canada, Barrichello could have finished as high as third but was again on the wrong strategy which required him to pit an extra time dropping him to 12th. In Europe, Jenson Button had had a storming first lap before the rain arrived and was up to a strong 4th place but the rain had got impossible and he was one of six drivers to spin off at the first corner.
Finally, at the French Grand Prix Button finished 8th earning his and his team's first & so-far only point of the season but this seemed to be a rare hightlight as the car proved to be slow as usual from there on and the car put on its worst performance yet at Hungary where the RA107 proved to be the slowest car on the grid and Barrichello finished dead last in 18th place. Button fared little better by running ahead of Adrian Sutil in his Spyker but he would have falled behind him during his pitstops and the car's engine failed anyway, before Sutil got his chance. During that weekend, Honda had debuted a new front wing which looks, from the outside, identical to the one of the Spyker but arguably it has proved to only make the car slower than the Spyker, rather than make the car faster which was obviously the vision.
The aim for Honda had been for wins and possibly for the championship but this has proved impossible and it looks even unlikely that Honda will score more than a tally of double-figures and they risk being beaten by their customer Super Aguri team who are currently using an old updated RA106.

Honda RA107B

Plans had been revealed by the Honda team that they will introduce a B-Spec chassis in the mid season to replace the current car due to its performances, or lack of them.
Sources stated that the new chassis will incorporate a longer wheel-base like the Ferrari F2007 and improved sidepods and air fluxation units. Sources said the team planned to replace the narrow front nose with a more efficient, wider nose and front wing. All of these sources were proved to be incorrect, however, and visible changes were limited to the front suspension along with a differently-shaped airbox. The car was introduced at the French GP and has not proved to be much of an inprovement although it allowed Button to score his and Honda's first point.
The B-Spec Chassis was expected to form the basis of the 2008 car but have now been released for the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway. They will make major changes with the new B-spec model including new front wings, additional winglets on the sidepods to try and create more mechanical grip and aerodynamic force & forward & main rear bageboards.
During testing at Spain, test driver Christian Klien's RA107 was run with a set of large winglets towards the front of the car, arched at a high vertical angle and giving the appearance of elephant ears. The winglets were not used afterwards after Honda claimed them not to be of particular use.

Complete Formula One Results

() (results in bold indicate 'pole position')

Year	Team	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WCC
	Honda	Honda V8			AUS	MAL	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	EUR	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA	'2 ★ '	'9th ★ '
				Jenson Button	15	12	Ret	12	11	Ret	12	8	10	Ret	Ret	13	8
				Rubens Barrichello	11	11	13	10	10	12	Ret	11	9	11	18	17	10

★ Progress score following 2007 Italian Grand Prix.

Notes and references

1. "Honda launch green campaign and livery", Autosport report, retrieved 26th February 2007

External links

★ Full list of Technical Specifications of the RA107

★ Livery launch video - 26.02.2007 480x320