Honda rush through 2007 engine

Ahead of Formula One's planned engine freeze from next year, Honda are rushing their latest engine into use now so they can also use it next season.

By getting it ready for Italy, the team will have four races to develop and fine-tune it before the 2007 power-units have to be lodged with the FIA after the Chinese Grand Prix.

Should the engine be a big step forward over the team's current power-unit, it could give them an advantage next year over those outfits who will continue running with this season's engines.

Honda's senior technical director Shuhei Nakamoto has told autosport.com that the decision to bring the 2007 engine into play came after their victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Jenson Button will test it for the first time at Monza this week.

"We have decided we are going to bring in the 2007-spec engine at Monza," he explained. "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."

The new engine is a big enough design departure from the 2006 power unit to require a modified chassis to accommodate it. It has a different shape and also an altered exhaust layout configuration.

Team boss Nick Fry claims his team are now the third quickest in Formula One - and are still targeting McLaren in the constructors' championship.

"We are now or thereabouts with Renault and we are probably a bit slower than (Fernando) Alonso still, but we are gaining on them fast and I think we have got the match of McLaren," said Fry.

"Now the objective is to set sights on Ferrari. Based on today's performance we are probably still half a second slower than Ferrari and we are going to be working hard to pick that up.

"It is a big gap still but my personal objective is third place in the championships. It will take some huge results from us and some poor performances from McLaren, but we have got to set our eyes on that."