By Phil Huff
August 29 2006

Honda Racing F1 are set to raise the engine stakes in 2007, by exploiting the engine freeze rules from next year with the rushed introduction of the new engine at the Italian Grand Prix. Following the Chinese Grand Prix this year, all manufacturers must supply details of their engine for 2007, and that specification will be frozen. Any changes that need to be made for reliability purposes will have to go via the FIA, while performance advantage changes are, theoretically, banned.

However, Honda intend to be a number of steps ahead of their rivals in 2007, by introducing their 2007 power unit to Grand Prix racing this season.

The Italian Grand Prix, in just two weeks, will be the first outing for the new engine, leaving the team four races a some testing events to fine-tune the power and delivery specifications.

With Honda having achieved it's first goal of a race win, thanks to Jenson Button's first win in Hungary, the focus has now swiftly moved to 2007, with the team gambling 2006 reliability and points in a bid to secure a stronger team performance next year.

Expected to be a step forward from the current RA806E V8 units in use, the new engine, to be called the RA807E, will give the team a clear advantage, even if it proves to be unreliable in its first GP outings.

Given the battle that Ferrari and Renault are involved in for championship honours, neither team can afford to take the gamble of following Honda's lead, thereby handing the Brackley based squad and advantage for next season, and beyond, however small it may be.

"We have decided we are going to bring in the 2007-spec engine at Monza," Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda Racing F1's Senior Technical Director explained to leading F1 website autosport.com. "We have decided we are going to bring in the 2007-spec engine at Monza. The reason is that we have finished the two-race cycle here and we will start the new one in Italy, culminating in China where we have to submit the engine for homologation.

"There have been lots of discussions and plan changing since Hungary, and this is one of the results."