Matsushita: Honda “Has Work to Do” On Civic Race Pace

Honda still has “work to do” on the Civic Type R-GT’s race pace despite a convincing 1-2 finish in this month’s Fuji Speedway SUPER GT round, believes Nobuharu Matsushita.

Along with his teammate in the No. 8 ARTA Honda, Tomoki Nojiri, Matsushita captured a first victory for the four-door Civic since its introduction in only its fourth race, the pair leading home Team Kunimitsu duo Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino.

Matsushita and Nojiri went to Fuji among the clear favorites owing to their light success handicap of 6 kg, the lightest among the Bridgestone GT500 teams, following retirements in the preceding two races at Fuji and Suzuka.

At the same time, the championship-leading No. 36 TOM’S Toyota GR Supra shared by Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita defied a stage two fuel restrictor and a nominal 74 kg success handicap to finish seventh from 14th on the grid.

Matsushita believes this is evidence that Honda needs to make improvements to the Civic in terms of how it uses the tires to be able to fight for the championship.

“Over a single lap we were never too far away, even with the No. 36,” Matsushita told Sportscar365. “But for the race pace, we are still a bit behind compared to them.

“We have the same tendency as the NSX-GT, which is that we are a bit harsh on the tyres. That’s the thing we have to work on now, to improve the race pace.

“[Toyota] can use a softer tire than us. If we use that tire, we will damage it a lot. But at Fuji last weekend, we were the lightest Bridgestone car, so that made everything easier.

“Even though we won the race, we can’t be too optimistic because the #36 is flying. Even with 74 kg [success ballast] they were catching up like crazy. 

“I don’t understand how they are so fast in the corners. They have the fuel flow restrictor but also the weight, and their race pace is better than us.”

Matsushita and Nojiri now sit sixth in the drivers’ standings, 15 points behind TOM’S pair Tsuboi and Yamashita at the halfway point of the season.

Despite the fact the No. 8 car will have a stage one fuel restrictor for the next race at Suzuka, Matsushita believes the track can be well-suited to the Civic.

“I think Suzuka isn’t that bad,” he said. “In qualifying last time [for Round 3] I was P2 [in Q1]. In qualifying, even if you lack downforce, you can use the peak of the tires and maximize your straight line speed.

“The Civic is competitive, but on race pace we still have some work to do. That’s my feeling.”

Otsu Perplexed by No. 16 Straight Line Speed Woes

On the other side of the ARTA garage, the No. 16 car shared by Hiroki Otsu and Ren Sato limped home out of the points in 11th place at Fuji.

Otsu revealed post-race that the car was suffering a strange lack of straight line speed that made progress from his grid slot of 10th impossible, with Sato’s struggles with understeer in Q2 dragging down the pair’s qualifying average.

“Our time in Q2 was a lot slower than we imagined and we didn’t really understand the reason,” Otsu told Sportscar365. “And then in the race, from the very beginning it felt like the straight line speed was bad and I wasn’t able to overtake anyone.

“There are many possible factors but at the moment we don’t know the exact reason. 

“As well as the straight line speed, it also felt like we were lacking in the corners, so now we need to compare ourselves to the #8 car to work out what they did better than us and what we did worse and try and pin down the reason for our lack of pace.”

With Otsu and Sato having finished third on SUPER GT’s last visit to Suzuka in June, Otsu is keeping positive for the series’ return visit to the track later this month, with the No. 16 car set to be the lightest Bridgestone-shod car with 30 kg of ballast.

“We are still light [on ballast] for Suzuka, and the No. 16 car won there last year and we were able to keep gathering points that kept us in the title fight until the end. I think we can head to Suzuka this time at least targeting another podium finish.”