While Red Bull Powertrains has so far surprised several people in the Formula 1 paddock, Honda has experienced a more difficult build-up phase with Aston Martin.
Although Toto Wolff’s comments about the outright performance of the DM01 – as the Red Bull engine is officially labelled – were politically charged, reliability has so far proven to be better than many had expected.
Honda, by contrast, has encountered several early issues. Lance Stroll said during the first week of testing in Bahrain that Aston Martin had completed 400 laps fewer than most other teams by then, and that it could be lacking four seconds per lap.
The start of the second test week has not gone entirely to plan either. Fernando Alonso was kept in the garage on Wednesday morning due to what the team later described as a power unit issue.
“I hope Honda gets everything sorted”
Max Verstappen has won all of his world titles so far with Honda engines and still holds the Japanese brand in high regard. Asked by Motorsport.com whether he is surprised that Honda appears to be struggling for now with Aston Martin, the four-time world champion replied:
“Yes, it does look that way, but I don’t know exactly what they are doing or what is going on. Of course, I hope that they will get everything well sorted, but I don’t know.”
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
Even though Honda is now aligned with a rival team, Verstappen still wishes the manufacturer the very best.
“I can’t really say anything about their current situation, but I always prefer to see Honda doing very well in F1.”
It should be noted that Honda’s current F1 project differs somewhat from the successful years with Red Bull. Last year, Koji Watanabe acknowledged that many people had been taken off the F1 project and reassigned to other Honda R&D activities.
That dates back to the decision to officially withdraw from F1 at the end of 2021. Afterwards, Honda struck a deal with Red Bull to continue maintaining its engines through to 2025, but the impact had already been felt. As a result, the Japanese manufacturer had to partially rebuild its F1 project following the deal with Aston Martin.
That rebuilding process takes time, as does the integration with its new partner. During the launch in Saudi Arabia, Watanabe explained that it is also a logistical puzzle, with the Honda project largely based in Sakura and Aston Martin in its Silverstone campus.
“Our engineers often fly to Silverstone, and also engineers from Aston Martin are working very hard in our factory in Japan. So this in itself is a challenge, and maybe flight costs are a little bit of a disadvantage for us compared to the European manufacturers,” Watanabe admitted.
Start procedure and fuel in order, but no idea where Red Bull stands
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images
As for Red Bull’s own form, Verstappen is not yet willing to make any predictions. Laurent Mekies and Pierre Wache have both labelled Red Bull as the fourth-fastest team, although the man behind the wheel prefers to stay away from forecasts ahead of the season opener.
“I don’t know where we stand. We are still trying a lot of things. Wednesday wasn’t a really good day for us,” Verstappen said, referring to the cooling problems that troubled new team-mate Isack Hadjar.
“I know that it’s still a long way to go for us. You can’t expect everything to be perfect straight away, especially with our own engine. New regulations, and you see that certain teams are now bringing some upgrades to the car that look quite interesting. So yes, it’s impossible to say anything. Where you were last week, you might not be now. And where you are this week, you might not be there in Melbourne. That’s a very different circuit, so you can’t really draw any conclusions from it.”
The positive aspect is that the fundamentals at Red Bull appear to be in order. This applies, among other things, to the start procedure and also to the fully sustainable fuels.
“The start procedure might be a bit more difficult to get right, but for us that’s not really a topic,” added Verstappen. “The fuel should also be fine on our side; we finalised everything on time. The FIA clearly set out when you have to homologate it, and we did that. As a result, we have no issues with the fuel. Now it’s simply about optimising performance on both the car side and the engine side.”
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