Honda set for best start to season since returning to F1

With a pole and a victory, Honda has the best start of the season since their return to Formula 1. Toyoharu Tanabe is looking forward to the upcoming races and is working hard with his team to get the most out of the current package.

Best start for Honda

Red Bull Racing finally seems to have a car to compete with Mercedes from the start of the season. In Bahrain Max Verstappen took pole and finished second in the race, while in Imola he won the race. Honda has made a significant contribution to this result, as it is also the best start to a season for them in years.

''We are having our best start to a season since Honda returned to Formula 1 in the hybrid era, with a second place and a win for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing Honda in the first two races. After just two rounds, we know we still have a long season ahead of us. We’ll try to maximize our performance and results in every single race with our four drivers and both teams,'' Tanabe said in the preview from Honda.

Rain in Portugal

''Last year, Formula 1 visited the Algarve circuit for the first time as part of the unusual calendar as a result of the pandemic. Although not far from the beach resorts in southern Portugal, it is set among the hills and offers a unique challenge with many ups and downs and severe gradient changes. This weekend, everyone will have last year’s data to rely on when it comes to our preparation and so we should be able to start off in better shape than last year. So far, the weather forecast is predicting a high possibility of rain on Friday.''

This year there is only one hour per practice session, so with the predicted rain Honda will have to be very efficient with the time they get. ''We will therefore need to work as efficiently as possible in the limited amount of free practice time, to update our new PU data, in order to be fully prepared for Saturday and Sunday,'' the Honda top executive concludes.