Verstappen: “I don’t think Honda had many problems”

The Honda engine manufacturer has found some color this year, with a V6 turbo/hybrid Power Unit appearing to its advantage several times in the Toro Rosso, notably entrusted to Pierre Gasly, author of a fourth place in Bahrain, a seventh in Monaco, and another arrival in the points in Hungary during the last Grand Prix to date.

Services which, despite the various penalties received by residents of the Faenza structure, for replacing elements on the powertrain, demonstrate the progress of the Japanese bloc. Pierre Gasly also admitted after Hungary to wait “More performance from Honda for the second half of the season. »

The hope of Red Bull

As has now been noted for several weeks, Red Bull Racing will swap its engine Renault for the Honda in 2019. The Milton Keynes entity was able to study the data collected from its little sister Toro Rosso before making its decision and is counting on Japanese engineers to provide it with an engine capable of fighting for the first places.

To Max Verstappen, the progress shown by Honda remains encouraging and must overcome the problems encountered. « I don't think they had many problems. Most of the time they had a bad qualification, so it doesn't make much difference to install new components, so that's what they do, argues the Dutchman.

They still have quite a few races to understand the package for next year and it will be a new engine. They learn from their mistakes, which is good. »

Verstappen also believes that Honda is not the only engine manufacturer affected by reliability concerns. He himself has been stopped in his tracks several times by Power Unit problems this year, sometimes with very harsh words towards Renault.

“Daniel (Ricciardo) had problems so the same goes for other brands, not just Honda. I'm not too worried. »