2002 European Grand Prix Preview
Honda F1 Press Information PREVIEW European Grand Prix, 21 – 23 June 2002 ------------------------------------------------ The ninth round of the 2002 FIA Formula One World Championship takes Honda and its partner teams, DHL Jordan Honda and Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda, to Germany for the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Honda's localisation in Europe has been in progress for many years and, today, it carries out local production of automobiles and power products, develops models specifically for the European market and exports from Europe to the Middle East, Africa, North America and other regions. Right-hand-drive Civic Type-Rs are even exported from the UK to Japan. There are currently around 8,000 Honda employees in Europe and more than 125,000 people working for Honda globally. Honda started marketing motorcycles in Europe during the 1950s. In 1959, two years before the establishment of a local operation in Germany made it the first Japanese motorcycle manufacturer to have a European subsidiary, Honda had already made its presence felt on the continent in a different way by competing in the Isle of Man TT Race for the first time. It was the firm conviction of company founder Soichiro Honda that by doing so Honda could demonstrate its engineering capabilities on one of the world’s premier racing stages and thereby help raise awareness of Honda throughout Europe and the world. In 1962 Honda set up a production facility for motorcycles in Aalst, Belgium – a milestone in the company’s history as it was Honda’s first-ever overseas manufacturing plant. Honda Belgium is now responsible for the production of certain car parts as well as sales of motorcycles, cars and power products. Montesa Honda, responsible for manufacture and sales of motorcycles, was set up in Barcelona, Spain in 1980. Six years later Honda started producing power equipment products at a new factory located in Orleans, France and, in 1989, began manufacturing automobile engines in the UK. As a natural progression of this venture, Honda started manufacturing finished automobiles in the UK during 1992. This period also saw the establishment, in 1989, of Honda Motor Europe, the company's European head office in Caversham near Reading. In May 2000 the office was relocated to Langley, close to London. Respecting the autonomy of each local operation and encouraging it to become rooted in its own country, Honda's European network of facilities has proceeded to establish strong cooperative relationships with many European companies, with Honda Motor Europe acting as the hub for European operations. To strengthen its European operations even further, Honda carried out a reorganisation during 1999, dividing Europe into three sub-regions each comprising of a number of countries. The three areas are coordinated separately by regional subsidiaries, Honda Motor Europe UK located in Langley, Honda Motor Europe North based in Germany and Honda Motor Europe South situated in France. Honda has also established R&D centres in the UK, Germany and Italy. These facilities work on the development of products tailored to the needs of local markets. To expand Honda's automobile manufacturing activities in the UK, a second factory was set up in Swindon during the autumn of 2001 raising production capacity to 250,000 cars per annum. Honda invested £450 million in the expansion and there are now approximately 4,300 people employed at the Swindon plant. Shuhei Nakamoto – Race and Test Team Manager, Honda Racing Development “We had a strong race in Canada and managed to get the most out of our engine during the weekend. Since then, we have been working to improve the reliability for the race in Germany. We will be introducing the new spec engine for Friday and for qualifying on Saturday.” Circuit Details Circuit Name Nürburgring Circuit Address Nürburgring GmbH, 53520 Nurburg/Eifel, Germany Circuit Length 4.556km/2.831miles Timetable (all times are local – GMT/UTC is 1 hour behind) Friday Free Practice: 11.00-12.00 & 13.00-14.00 Saturday Free Practice: 08.15-09.00 & 09.30-10.15 Qualifying: 12.15-13.15 Sunday Warm-up: 09.30-10.00 Race (67 laps): 14.00 2001 Results Winner M Schumacher (Ferrari) 1h29m42.724s Fastest race lap J Montoya (Williams) 1m18.354s Pole position M Schumacher (Ferrari) 1m14.960s Lap record J Montoya (Williams) 1m18.354s Honda in Europe 2001 Villeneuve 9th / Frentzen DNF / Trulli DNF / Panis DNF Honda in Europe 6 Grands Prix; 0 wins; 0 podiums Honda F1 winners Senna 32, Mansell 13, Prost 11, Piquet 7, Berger & Rosberg 3, Ginther & Surtees 1 Team wins powered by Honda McLaren-Honda 44, Williams-Honda 23, Honda 2, Lotus-Honda 2 ------------------------------------------------ For further information and photos go to the Honda F1 media website www.honda-gp.com, user name: honda, password: ginther -------------------------------------------------------------- Charlie Reid, Honda F1 Press Office, Imperial House, Imperial Road, London, SW6 2AG, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7384 2133 Fax: +44 (0)20 7384 1238 Mobile: +44 (0)7780 664855