Honda Cures Engine Problem

Although BAR cut short their running on Friday so as to save a valuable test day, with the team currently intended to stick to the 30-day limit agreed by the 'Group of Nine', BAR had managed to complete a massive amount of mileage earlier in the week.

And although the early failures in Sepang attracted a huge amount of negative publicity, especially after Jenson Button publicly slammed the progress of BAR and Honda, subsequent examination has found that the dramas were caused by minor problems.

Sources close to Honda have told Autosport-Atlas that the failures were caused by a badly designed oil sensor - which effectively led to both Button and Anthony Davidson's engine blowing up spectacularly early in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Honda has since modified the parts and is not expecting any repeat of the problems. In fact, it is so confident with its Bahrain engines that it has spent much of its time at Paul Ricard this week working on a development specification that will be used later in the year.