Alessandro Mariani says that he is “satisfied” with Honda’s pre-season World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) testing, after Gabriele Tarquini, Norbert Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro completed running at Valencia in Spain.
Honda have been testing along with Citroën in Valencia over the past week, giving both works’ drivers Tarquini and Monteiro, as well as Michelisz, a chance to work on the improved Civic.
“We are satisfied with the test,” said JAS Motorsport boss Mariani. “Gabriele drove for the three initial days and then testing was continued by Norbert. We made good progress and were able to validate some of the ideas and developments we made over the winter in areas like suspension, brakes and engine mapping.
“I can say we have worked 360 degrees on the car development and the results are positive in all areas. The feeling was good from both drivers and I’m happy that our programme is going according to plan for the 2015 season.”
Portuguese racer Monteiro has recently taken to the wheel of the team’s 2015 car and emphasised the improvements which have been made to the car’s engine, which was one of the areas lacking performance last season.
“We worked hard and we feel that there have been considerable developments in regard to the engine as we continued both mechanical and aerodynamic testing on the car,” explained Monteiro. “We believe that step by step we are evolving as we test long runs and developments.
“We will have to make some important decisions soon as we can only effectively make three changes on the car this year and it has to be weighted and evaluated, but I believe in the team’s work.”
Honda will continue their winter testing programme at Barcelona and Paul Ricard later this month, before the WTCC season kicks off in Argentina at the beginning of March.