Honda: We are getting close to top performance

Honda is feeling confident ahead of their debut with Red Bull in Melbourne that their power unit will be able to compete at the top level in Formula One soon. Honda motorsport chief Masashi Yamamoto says the Japanese manufacturer is heading in the right direction with their development.

Honda has struggled since returning to the sport in 2015, their rekindling of the iconic partnership between themselves and McLaren was a failure on an embarrassing level however they now feel that with new partners in Toro Rosso and Red Bull, they can build an engine that can fight against the top teams in F1.

Speaking to Motorsport, the Honda chief explained that the power unit development was going well with aims and expectations set in stone that they feel are achievable.

“After four years of our development and trying, we think we are now finding the right direction and where to go – much clearer than last year, or two years ago. So we think we can speed up our development.

“We will make a big effort during the winter, and now of course. At least we would like to start from third within the manufacturers, then try to catch the frontrunners up during the season.”

Honda impressed Red Bull in 2018 whilst providing junior team Toro Rosso with power units and expectations are high ahead of the 2019 season.

Daniel Ricciardo in particular suffered from unreliability with the Renault power unit and with rumours suggesting that the French manufacturer has fallen behind in the development race, Honda will be quietly confident of improvement this season.