Red Bull: "Honda makes the engines run more aggressively"

Red Bull Racing is still very satisfied with Honda and their performance. Christian Horner argues that the Japanese engine supplier is doing a good job and that at the moment only the Mercedes engine is stronger. 

"Honda's doing a good job. We probably have the second strongest engine in the field. But the goal is to have the best engine", says Horner at Auto, Motor und Sport. Next, the Brit indicates that according to his information, the Honda engine is faster than Renault's power unit.

Honda updates

A few weeks ago Helmut Marko complained that Honda was too conservative in the engine settings. The Japanese seem to have done something with that feedback. "Honda makes the engines run more aggressively. But you have to use that strategically. There's no point in doing that if you're ten seconds behind the leader. You have to use the most powerful settings at the right time," he explains.

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the FIA has established certain rules, which makes it no longer possible to continue to develop unlimitedly. It ensures that Honda can't narrow the gap towards Mercedes as quickly as it would like. Improvements are on the way, but these are not related to qualifying mode, for example. "I hope that we can driver higher (engine) modes for a longer time", Horner says about the updates that are being implemented.

Not only was Honda's power unit not competitive enough at the beginning of the season, also the chassis of the RB16 wasn't spared some teething problems. Whether Red Bull understands the car one hundred percent? "I don't think any team has ever understood its own car one hundred percent. We now have a clear direction where we have to go with the further development of the car".