Verstappen had to scale back Honda engine power during Bahrain GP

During the Bahrain Grand Prix Max Verstappen had a brilliant battle with Lewis Hamilton but ultimately fell short. Now it appears he had to do so with a lot less power than expected because the Honda engine had to be downsized.

After the winter test and free practice sessions, Red Bull Racing looked like the team to beat in Bahrain and in qualifying Max Verstappen showed that. The Dutchman outpaced Lewis Hamilton by a whopping four tenths to start from pole position.

From that moment on, it looked like it was going to be a piece of cake for Verstappen in the desert, but that certainly wasn't the case. Due to an alternative strategy, Hamilton suddenly found himself ahead and Verstappen had to start the pursuit. According to Helmut Marko, the Dutchman had a lot less power at his disposal for this.

"We had to reduce the power of the Honda engine, because of problems with the temperature," the Red Bull Racing advisor told Motorsport-Total.com. Despite the problems, Verstappen managed to catch up with the World Champion, but after the off-track action, he saw victory slip away from him.

No worries about problems

The problems with the Honda engine immediately lead to concerns for the upcoming races and the reliability of the engine. According to Marko there is just no reason for that.

"The problems we had are mainly related to the software. Nothing in the hardware, so those are things we can solve with a few adjustments." Whether the problems have actually been solved, we will find out at the Imola Grand Prix in two weeks time.