Yamamoto: "Both Honda and Red Bull are very open about their chassis and engine"

Honda is back at the top of Formula 1. When it returned to F1 in 2015 after years of absence, as an engine supplier to McLaren, the team struggled to make a strong and reliable engine. Now that Honda is working with Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, those problems seem to have been overcome.

Learned a lot from the early years

"We have learned so many things from the McLaren days, those three years, and also that year from Toro Rosso was quite big for us to learn many things", said Honda motorsport boss Masashi Yamamoto to the official Formula 1 website. He also says he's not surprised by the quick and big steps Honda has taken.

After Honda left McLaren and only provided Toro Rosso with engines, it immediately made big strides. In their second race, Pierre Gasly finished fourth with the Toro Rosso. That was Honda's best result since their return. From that point on, the emphasis was on reliability.

More aggressive developments

When Red Bull also started riding Honda engines, Honda was allowed to be more aggressive with their developments. "The biggest factor [in our progress] is communication", says Yamamoto. "Both Honda and Red Bull is really open about their chassis and engine. We are very frank and we can say whatever we want to say. And Red Bull are very open and frank with us."

"Red Bull is also 100% committed to winning, and that is where all their focus lies, and that matches the aims of our company. We just want to win. They let us do whatever we need to do to produce a package that can win", concludes Yamamoto.