Honda apologise to Max Verstappen for Abu Dhabi engine difficulties

Honda’s Formula 1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe has apologised for the issues Red Bull’s Max Verstappen experienced during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, explaining that there could have been a bigger deficit.

While battling it out for second places against Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari around the Yas Marina Circuit Verstappen voiced over his radio of experiencing engine problems.
 
The Dutchman expressed that there was “massive lag out of corners” and that “something was not correct” after his pit stop.

“We tried to improve it with some different settings during the race after the pit stop,” Tanabe said to Autosport.

“Then the driver compromised the application of the throttle.

“We are very sorry about the trouble during the race.

“The problem didn’t give him a big deficit in terms of position.

“But there was a big chance to give him a big deficit, it depends on the race situation.

“We should be perfect enough to supply our drivers and teams in terms of power unit performance.”

The Dutchman went on to finish second behind Lewis Hamilton to secure P3 in the Championship while Honda completed the year without suffering an engine failure on Sundays.

 “We achieved no Sunday race failure to stop the car, which was good for us,” he added.

“But like we have with today’s situation, we still have not had a stoppage, but we have an area to improve.

“Also, we have had some issues in practice. So we need to clean up everything from the race weekend.”