Max Verstappen: Honda “were a bit careful” after McLaren failures

Max Verstappen believes that engine supplier Honda “were a bit careful” with their engines for Red Bull at the beginning of the season after the failures they endured on the track with McLaren for a few years.

Honda made their return to Formula 1 in 2015 when they partnered with McLaren to supply engines for them, but it didn’t go to plan as over three seasons of poor results and several engine failures led to them parting.
 
The Japanese manufacturer initially joined with Toro Rosso last year, proving themselves enough for Red Bull to choose them over long time engine suppliers for the team, Renault.
 
A choice that has been a huge positive after Verstappen won in Austria and Germany while taking three other podiums as well as Daniil Kvyat claiming a podium for Toro Rosso in Germany.
 
Verstappen said of the recent boost in performance to Autosport: “I think the engine we started to take more out of it, because I felt like Honda didn’t want to break down.
“You can see we are pushing a bit harder, but it’s still fine.

“But after all the negative stuff they had at McLaren with all the engines blowing up and other things, they were a bit careful, and I think that is the right approach.”

The Dutchman also praised Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey and the team for developing parts to improve the car since the start of the season.

“Obviously we had our own little issues at the beginning of the year with the car not being exactly what we wanted it to be for some reason,” he added.

“We kept working hard, the factory also kept pushing very hard with new parts for the car very quickly, reacting.

“Of course Adrian being on top of it, and I think very quickly we sorted out a car which was again really nice to drive.

“From Austria onwards, when we brought a few new bits, that seemed to be a turnaround for us, where we could finally really start pushing the car.”